


,1 "I"' 





Class JB.ft_i2_L_. 
Book._4vli'2L5__ 
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 




On page 8, line 1 2, for science read religious science. 



" 116. 


' 22. 


" 139. 


' 22. 


" 158, 


' 8. 


" 177. 


' 17. 


" 215. 


* 17. 



granting read grant, 
wonderer read wanderer, 
mind read wind, 
has read had. 
three read these. 



A few minor errors in the way of inadvertences 
in spelling and punctuation may readily be de- 
tected as such. 



A single erratum may knock out the brains 
of a whole passage. 

— Cowper. 



CHRISTIANITY 

IN THE LIGHT OF REASON 

AND REVELATION 



CHRISTIANITY 

IN THE LIGHT OF REASON 
AND REVELATION 



BY 



WM, W. MOORE, SR. 



(A layman) 




VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI: 

WM. W. MOORE, SR. 

M C M I X 

All rights reser'ved 






^^ 



Copyright 1909 

by 

William W. Moore, Sr. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

APR 30 1809 

^ Copyright Entry^ 
CLASS CU AXc. No. 
COPY lT. ' 



TO 

THOSE FRIENDS 

WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A DESIRE TO 

SEE PUBLISHED THE VIEWS HEREIN ADVANCED, 

AND TO THOSE 

WHO AT DIFFERENT TIMES WERE 

MEMBERS OF MY SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSES, 

IN TEACHING WHOM 

THE SYSTEM HEREIN LAID DOWN 

WAS GRADUALLY EVOLVED AND DEVELOPED, 

THE AUTHOR RESPECTFULLY 

INSCRIBES THIS 

BOOK 



PREFACE 



of amity to controvert it, or supply a better system. 
Some who take issue with the views here advanced 
will indulge in denunciation without argument, while 
others will resort to inuendo or covert attack. Such 
are asked to avoid the resort of cowards, and, that 
the world may have the benefit of their logic, to come 
out '*in the open" with their attacks. 

The author is not unaware that his reputation 
among men as a Christian will stand or fall by their 
opinion of the doctrines herein set forth, of which 
fact no one should be indifferent ; but he has no fear 
of incurring the displeasure of Him by Whose coun- 
sel he can safely say he has not been misguided. 

To those who would construe what is herein 
written relating to errors in the Bible and Prayer 
Book as in detraction of these precious treasures of 
literature, it may be said in all the candor of sacred 
truth, that the Incarnate Word, being first in import- 
ance of all the divine gifts to man, none other than 
the Written Word can hold second place, to which the 
Episcopal Prayer Book is a fit companion, in the 
estimation of the author. W. W. M. 



Vicksburg, Mississippi. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introdu6lion I 

I. The Church 14 

11. Second Death, Eternal Life, and Endless 

Punishment 30 

III. Resurre6lion of the Body 64 

IV. Heaven Local, Etc 85 

V. Eleftion 10 1 

VI. Angels 112 

VII. Jews 117 

VIII. Unpardonable Sin 148 

IX. Regeneration 156 

X. Races 1 76 

XL Christian Science 198 

XII. Conclusion 211 



CHRISTIANITY 

IN THE LIGHT OF REASON 
AND REVELATION 

INTRODUCTION 

EVERY science is founded on a basis of truth, 
and every art is the result of the utilization 
of known truths in their application to useful pur- 
poses. Given certain fundamental truths of a science 
we find other truths following those laid down in 
regular and logical sequence. If in the science of 
revealed religion we, find our logical conclusion sup- 
ported by revelation, we may be reasonably certain 
of a correct conclusion. 

The first and all-important basis of truth which 
comes to us by revelation, and is sustained by and in 
our experience, is that God is Love. Although the 
words *God' and 'Love' are made synonymous, by 
revelation, yet the interchangeability of the terms is 
but imperfectly understood by many of His creatures, 
if in any way known as a fact. With the fullest 
knowledge of the frailty of men we must concede 
that, prompted by love, God cannot be otherwise than 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



both merciful and just, and this last conclusion is a 
safe deduction founded on revelation and logic. 

If this be true, every adverse conclusion must be 
false. God has given to man certain laws for his 
government, based on the duty of man to Him and to 
his neighbor. One of the first demurrers made by 
man against the love, mercy and justice of God, is 
on account of these laws, based on the claim that 
man is not able to keep the law. While this is true, 
yet it is not due to imperfection of the law or its 
want of adaptability to man's circumstances in life, 
for its observance by man will secure to him the 
greatest happiness in this life as also in the life to 
come. 

If this, then, be the consequence of keeping or 
faithfully trying to keep the law, the rejection of it, 
and the repudiation of its obligation must bring op- 
posite results; that is, unhappiness in this life as 
also in the life to come. 

The love, mercy and justice of God being estab- 
lished by His law and His fulfillment of the law in the 
atonement by His Son, we may proceed to show that 
the system of religion as held by the great mass of 
Christians, of all sects and shades of opinion, is not 
in all of its details founded upon scientific principles, 
is not logical, and not supported by revelation, al- 
though in some instances apparently supported by 
revelation. 

No hypothesis can be sound unless it be founded 
upon truth. As any divergence from a right line, in 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 



an effort to reach a given object, will lead one, if 
pursued, continuously further from that object; so 
a deviation from truth, if pursued, will carry us 
further away in every deduction, as in such case error 
becomes cumulative. 

Viewing it, then, as my bounden duty, so it is my 
purpose to show, both by reason and by revelation, 
that the tenets held and taught by the mass of so- 
called orthodox Christians as a system of truth are 
defective and lead to error and superstition. A sum- 
mary of these errors is as follows: 

Endless ptmishment. 

Immortality of all m^ankind. 

The resMrrection of the body or flesh, 

A local Heaven, 

A local Hell, 

Election as formerly held by a large part of the 
different sects of Christianity , 

Judgment at the time of the death of the body^ which 
involves a denial of a future intermediate state. 

That doctrine which denies that there is for anyone 
in the future life an opportunity for repenta^ice. 

The doctrine of back-sliding, as held and taught with 
evil results by Christians of a certain faith. 

And unity of origiii for all manki7id. 

The reader will readily perceive that if there be so 
many errors held by orthodox Christians, he being 
allowed to limit or extend the term orthodox to suit 
his own ideas, it is high time that the attention of 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



the so-called orthodox should be directed to their 
errors. Impressed solemnly and seriously with that 
idea, the writer undertakes the Herculean task of 
combatting them, in no spirit of controversy, except 
inasmuch as he finds it in the line of his duty 
to aid his fellows in search of that truth which shall 
**make them free.'' 

Many persons believe because the truths of our re- 
ligion are forever the same, that the science of our 
religion is not progressive; but while it is true that 
the truths are unchangeable, yet our knowledge — 
which is the science of it — may change. Let the 
reader, then, prepare himself for a state of recep- 
tivity of truth, by a willingness to receive it. To 
obtain a man's will to be convinced, is often to gain 
a power more potent than the most incontrovertable 
argument can comm.and. To overcome a man's pre- 
dilections, especially in his favorite and long-cher- 
ished religious convictions, is such an iconoclasm, 
as would be equalled only by a complete smashing of 
the household gods of the ancient idolators. 

In inviting the reader to come with me in this dis- 
cussion — while I ask him to come with a free and 
untrammeled mind — I promise not to take away 
irom him, or to suggest to him to discard, as a 
Christian, one tenet of the faith which is necessary 
to salvation; or, to express it more correctly, to the at- 
i:ainment of everlasting life. 

Has not God through his prophet (Ezekiel) said 
'*'Come let us reason together".? ''My ways are 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 



equal, your ways are unequal," etc. Shall we shrink 
from the reasoning for fear of the charge of rational- 
ism ? (and we find even this misapprehended since it 
is only applicable in an attempt to explain the acknowl- 
edged mysteries, such as the Trinity, Regeneration, 
etc.)- Is it reasonable to assume that God, who has 
endowed us with faculties of reason and revealed 
Himself to us, would deny the free use of that reason 
in an effort to understand that revelation ? Granted 
— if we must — that the regenerate, and the so- 
called ^elect', can dispense with reason and argument, 
how shall we reach the unregenerate except by these ? 
Wherein did St. Paul's superiority as a preacher 
consist but in his logical power? Did he not ad- 
dress himself to the reasoning power of men.? A de- 
fective theology fails to reach men who bring the test 
of reason to weigh it. A God at the same time 
kind and cruel, and yet no respecter of persons, im- 
presses the sane man as unworthy of his worship and 
adoration. 

As God and the evil one are separate personalities, 
men cannot accept a theory which supposes the Great 
First Cause to be an admixture of good and evil or 
God and Devil. The complaint is made through our 
religious periodicals that strong men are not seek- 
ing the ministry of the Church, that they are being 
discouraged by the unpopularity of the pulpit; men of 
science being repelled by the weak points in the 
logic of our system, no chain being stronger than 
its weakest link. Our Saviour's words to Peter were 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



*'Feed my lambs," ''Feed my sheep," repeating the 
latter injunction, ''Feed my sheep." To feed the 
lambs is comparatively an easy and simple task and a 
labor of love — as in the Sunday school, — but the 
story of the emptiness of the Word, as given to the 
sheep, is told in the empty churches, of which An- 
drew D. White, in writing on Christianity in Ger- 
many, asserts that there is in Berlin only seating ca- 
pacity for two per cent of the entire population in 
the churches, and yet there is always plenty of room 
during worship. 

Looking up to be fed, and going away empty, can 
w^e wonder if the sheep should decry what a recent 
article in the Literary Digest denominates a "use- 
less and juiceless clergy? " 

A few short years ago, the writer, after much dis- 
cussion with a clergyman on doctrine, which consti- 
tutes the subject matter of this book, w^as gratified 
to hear an admission from him of the correctness of 
the logic and the preponderance of the scriptural 
proof for his view^s against Endless Punishment. The 
question naturally arose and w^as asked, "Why he 
did not preach the doctrine?" to which he replied 
that the effect of such preaching would cause men to 
run into every excess of wickedness. To the further 
question as to whether even that anticipated danger 
should deter him from telling the truth, the answer 
was evasive or without point. 

What parent wdio has lived to thank God for the 
gift of children, has not found love's restraining or 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 



dynamic effect greater than that of fear, and especial- 
ly a present abiding love more cogent than a fear of 
a danger that is remote. Many of our clergy are tied 
by vows of ordination to certain articles of creeds 
from which they cannot absolve themselves and re- 
tain their positions. Can we wonder then, if they 
should not be willing to believe anything contrary to 
their creed 1 

How strenuous has been the struggle of the Church 
of England to break away from the fetters which bind 
it to the Athanasian Creed, and yet how futile. For- 
tunately, for the American Church (Protestant 
Episcopal) she got rid of it by declining to adopt it. 
It costs something to remove the barnacles from an 
old vessel, something akin to a Caesarian operation 
to part forever with life-long comrades. 

How many in America to-day, of ordinary in- 
telligence, can subscribe to that article of the 
Athanasian Creed which requires them to believe and 
hold the doctrine of that Creed in all its parts, which 
treats at length on the abstruse points relating to the 
Trinity (which few can understand) and to which, un- 
less they do assent, they shall be eternally damned } 
If insuperable opposition is here, who dares to assail 
the Westminister Confession on Election, or the 17th 
Article of the 39, in the Episcopal Prayer Book, on 
the same subject.? 

The charge of effeminacy in the clergy is being 
brought and repeated by members of the ministry 
themselves, who have not taken the trouble to seek 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



for the cause or have not been able to apprehend it, 
which subject shall have further attention in another 
connection. 

Within the last year or two a certain Kentucky 
clergyman, offered a prize of $ioo, for a new truth in 
theology, that had been discovered since 1850. No 
new truth was offered, so far as known to the writer, 
and doubtless the clergyman and those of his opinion 
have congratulated themselves and rested in the be- 
lief that there is no such truth. If this be true, then 
science has made no progress, and it might be said, 
is not a progressive science. 

Doubtless from one point of view this may seem 
true for the reason that the apostles and disciples of 
Christ obtained more from Him on some points, 
we may say, than have been transmitted to us. As 
to knowledge on these, there has been retrogression, 
most of which has occurred by reason of translation, 
misconstruction artful changes by interpolation, etc., 
to say nothing of the low ebb to which our religion 
fell during the dark ages in which much may have 
been lost. The progression of the sciences, since 
the dark ages, is the recovery from the retrogression. 
We may well conclude that such men as St. Paul, 
St. John and St. Peter knew more of the science of 
religion than our generation, because many of the 
facts have been clouded by the causes given above. 
Very many errors have been recently discovered, aris- 
ing from the causes mentioned, and there is no 
reason why others may not be found; so in this way 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 



we discover new truth in theology or the science 
of our religion. 

The Kentucky clergyman may offer his prize of 
;^ioo with impunity, so long as he or anyone of his way 
of thinking, is to be the referee or arbiter to decide 
as to the new truth ; and honestly enough, since he 
would most certainly be convinced by his mode of 
reasoning, either that the truth was not new, or that 
it was not truth. Should this writer assert that by 
study and investigation he had discovered there is no 
resurrection of the body, no endless punishment, no 
local Heaven or Hell, no real lake of burning brim- 
stone for sinners, that a class of men (those guilty 
of the unpardonable sin) are not immortal, as they are 
doomed to a second death, or death of the soul, and 
that some will have the opportunity of repentance 
and acceptance or rejection of the salvation of Christ 
in an intermediate state (after the death of the 
body, or at the time of the death of the body consist- 
ent with the fact that the wicked shall not escape 
punishment), the effect would doubtless be one of 
horror to the mind of the Kentucky clergyman; or 
the suggestion of any truth being found in any one of 
the propositions, regardless of the fact that a mind 
unbiased by prejudicial conclusion might easily be 
convinced. With him nothing true can be new and 
nothing new can be true. 

The best teacher is that one, who, with his pupil, 
soonest reaches the place where the least teaching is 
required. And he teaches in vain, who cannot hope 



10 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

to reach such a goal. The excitation of thought on 
the part of a pupil, is the sine qua non, or that 
without which there can be no scholarship. Herein 
is every one truly and indeed the ''architect of his 
own fortune*' or knowledge. Here the same road is 
travelled by prince and peasant, by rich and poor. 

The purpose of this book is to reach the popular 
mind, to cause men and women to think, to reflect, 
to pursue the train of argument for themselves in 
such cases as they shall find it not satisfactorily com- 
plete. 

In its true sense there must be metaphysical rea- 
soning, however formidable the word may sound, 
and there must be ratiocination, however akin that 
may appear to rationalism in the mind of the regen- 
erate Christian, since there is no avenue of approach 
to the unregenerate except through that of reason 
and power of comprehension ; to be plain, through his 
reasoning power. The reader is asked, then, only to 
be just to himself, by being or trying to be just to 
the God who created him, and who loves him, in the 
use of his best judgment, that he may be led to a cor- 
rect decision. 

This book is written with the purpose of 
placing you in a right relation to the great First 
Cause, your Creator, and, if you so choose, your 
Saviour; and that which may appear discursive, im- 
pertinent or mere speculation will be avoided as 
much as possible in a work of this kind. 

Although the ''Children of this world are in their 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 11 

generation wiser than the children of light/' yet the 
humblest child of God basks in the effulgence of an 
unremitting light, which only those can see and know 
who have been ^^born again.** A light like that of 
the poet ** which never was on sea or land/* yet more 
enduring than that of the poet — the everlasting light 
of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. 

Does the man of the world at large know and un- 
derstand Him who hath humbled himself before God 
and received of His spirit ? * * Verily the wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound there- 
of, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it 
goeth; — so is every one that is born of the spirit/' 
The world cannot understand Him, for as His**lifeis 
hid with Christ in God,** so are His motives hid from 
the knowledge of men. 

I write for the regenerate as for the unregenerate, 
knowing that I shall not always escape from the ap- 
pearance of superfluity on the one hand, and obscurity 
on the other. Let no regenerate person lay down 
this book through fear for his or her faith, for 
here is given the reader the results of years of pa- 
tient reading and study. Let not the unbeliever or 
the indifferent pass it by, for it may lead these into 
a new train of thought which will bring them from 
the pathway of shame, sorrow and suffering to that 
of happiness; from the pathway that leads to the 
death of the soul to that pathway that leads to ever- 
lasting life. 

For the better classification of the theory herein 



12 CHRISTIAXITY IX THE LIGHT 

laid down, and to assist the reader in that regard, at- 
tention is again asked to certain erroneous popular 
tenets which are to be controverted, that the reader's 
mind may be prepared more quickly to apprehend 
the system herein presented. In place of Endless 
Punishm.ent, you have Second Death — death of the 
soul. The soul that sinneth (persistently) ''it shall 
die." In place of a Local Hell, you have the Grave, 
the Tomb, punishment of the intermediate state and 
final death of the soul. 

In place of a Local Heaven, you have in the Inter- 
mediate State the Paradise of the Spirit, the happi- 
ness of the regenerate soul in this life and a final 
abode with God in the spiritual world w^hich shall 
know no bounds, but be commensurate with the uni- 
verse. 

In place of the immortality of all mankind, you 
have the death of the soul to the finally impenitent. 

In place of the resurrection of the body you have 
the resurrection of the spirit. 

In place of a body burning in a material fire, you 
have a spirit suffering from remorse, imprisonment 
and evil association. 

In place of judgment at the death of the body, 
you have the intermediate state. 

In place of Election and Predestination, you have 
freedom of your own election with your will power 
unrestrained to accept or reject salvation. 

In place of a dogma which denies to all alike any 
place of repentence and pardon in a future life, I 



OF RE VELA TION AND REASON 13 

show by reason and revelation that such is impos- 
sible. 

In place of the dogma of Universalism, I cite you 
to the unpardonable sin and the death of the soul. 

Before beginning a discussion of any of these, 
however, a chapter must be devoted to the Church, 
for reasons which will appear and suggest them- 
selves to the mind in the course of its perusal. 



14 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



I 

THE CHURCH 

FOR the purpose of convenience, and to enable the 
reader more readily to comprehend and retain in 
mind the system laid down in this book as one of 
Christian truth, a certain order of subjects and chap- 
ters is adopted, beginning with such subjects as 
should be first understood to better elucidate those 
that are to follow after. It is necessary to allot to 
the Church a chapter, coming first for consideration 
due to its claim for precedence both in time and in 
importance over all subjects relating to our religion; 
the Christian Church being older than the New 
Testament Scripture by thirty years, and the ancient 
Jewish Church antedating the Old Testament by 
many hundred years perhaps. The Church, other- 
wise known as the 'invisible,' is the Kingdom of 
Heaven on earth, that kingdom for whose advent we 
are taught to pray. Plainly stated, it is the control- 
ling influence of the spirit of God in and over the 
souls of men. 

This kingdom, as known to our race of men, began 
with Adam, was perpetuated through his repentance 
after his fall to Abel and other godly men, to Noah, 
thence to Abraham and the other patriarchs and 



OF RE VELA TION AND REASON 15 

prophets, to Moses and Aaron, until it reached its 
local habitation in the tabernacle, where its spiritual 
presence was testified by a local presence in the 
shekinah, coming down through the ages. We see 
it perpetuated in the prophets to Elijah and from 
him (or in him, rather, the two being identical) to 
John the Baptist. And so it passes always by elec- 
tion from the old dispensation to the new. Finding 
the acme of its culmination in Christ it comes 
down to us, the Christ to whom the ancient elect 
looked forward and to whom we, not the elect, 
but who have elected (or chosen) look backward. 
Well may we revere the Church as, in a sense, the 
author as well as the custodian of Scripture through 
the ages, as the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, as the 
ecclesia docens, as a body of true believers, of 
the regenerate of every age, every nation and every 
race of every affiliation, regardless of connection, 
sect or association. Well may we honor the Church, 
the bride of the Lamb, and ever pray, **Thy King- 
dom come,'' with the words of that beautiful and 
soul-stirring hymn, 

" Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, 
With all thy quickening power," etc. 

referring to the Comforter, whom our Saviour said, 
**The Father will send in my name.'' Let the^reader 
be careful that he may allow no confusion of mind 
between this Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom 
of God, which elsewhere is used to designate the 



16 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

final abode of the just, and might, with propriety, 
be used to designate the intermediate state 
of the redeemed ; nor with the vast expanse over our 
heads known as the heavens. 

Having shown the descent of the Church through 
the Jewish Church and people, and from them to us, 
we may well exclaim with the apostle St. John that 
'^Salvation is of the Jews." 

Passing, for the present at least, into further con- 
sideration of the Church as a spiritual kingdom, we 
are called to view and discuss it as a body of re- 
generate and unregenerate persons, an organized body, 
hence an organization. Passing it for the present as 
an administrative state during the Jewish dispensa- 
tion, reference will be made to some historical facts 
regarding the Church as it has existed among Chris- 
tians. It will not be denied that during the retro- 
gression mentioned in the preceding chapter there 
was progress, progress in some direction, whether or 
not along the lines of least resistance, and when we 
reflect upon the slowness of the progress, together 
with the opposition then as now existing, it is not 
hard to believe that the Science of Christian Religion 
is in its infancy. Verily, a thousand years is but as 
a day with God. The natural obstacles, not the least 
of which is and ever has been the stubborn will of 
man, coupled with an innate tendency to constitute 
himself the keeper of his neighbor's conscience, have 
and ever will stand in the way of progress. That 
the Church has stood as an obstruction to the advance 



iiiii 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 17 

of science, wherever science seemed to run counter to 
its accepted tenets, is not denied, and that it will 
continue to do so may reasonably be expected, but 
serious reflection will enable us to account for this 
without adverse reflection upon the Church: 

(i) It is most natural that those who love the 
Church would be jealous of interference with or con- 
tradiction of her teachings. 

(2) There is always an element ready to array it- 
self against a new idea. 

(3) Often those who control the action are not its 
regenerate members, but are hypocrites noted for 
obstinacy and their power of coercion over others. 
Bent on having their own way, the Church is held, 
in the minds of many persons, responsible for all 
the circumstances which tend to the creation of 
obstructions to her own progress. Hypocrites 
and demagogues hold a preponderance of authority 
and influence, and things usually move in the direc- 
tion suggested by them. The conservative element 
yields for the sake of peace; the former care nothing 
for progress and prefer to discourage it with their 
proverbial antipathy which ignorance entertains for 
everything that it may consider an innovation or may 
not understand. 

There are other cases where an innovation in the 
way of Truth might seriously interfere with income 
or the regular order. In some cases it is a Pope, a 
Bishop or Presbyter who forces a Copernicus or a 



18 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Gallileo to retraction, or a Calvin through blind fa- 
naticism burns a Servetus at the stake, or a Henry 
VIII beginning with the divorce of a faithless 
woman finds cause for divorce from the Roman 
Church, while the Church bears the odium of it all 
and suffers in her good name. The Church as an 
authoritative body is slow of action, even where she 
may with propriety and in duty decide to act. The 
Clergy, as a class, are by force of environment very 
conservative to do good and *'get their living in that 
state to which it has pleased God to call them ;' ' being 
considered quite up to the line of duty without inter- 
meddling with the creeds, the confessions of faith or 
the thirty-eight articles. Besides this, the most of 
them have taken vows of ordination binding them to 
the defense of the faith, as it is tendered them from 
their respective Churches or religious organizations. 
In most cases these admit no freedom of thought 
whatever on points of doctrine, while in other cases 
where the, latitude seems to be more extended, the 
constituency will not tolerate any departure from 
their ideals of the ''old time religion." 

That the Church through all the ages has stood in 
the way of scientific progress, as charged by many 
writers, is only ostensibly and partially true. If due 
credit be given to the influence of Christianity, 
that is the Church, it will be found that the Church 
through such an influence has given immeasurable 
aid to such progress. To decry the influence of 
Christianity or the Church in this behalf is to dis- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 19 

cover an absence of the light of the Gospel from the 
mind of him who denies such progress. 

The enlightening influence of regeneration leads 
men to ambitions and aspirations above and beyond 
that which is sensual and helps one to success after 
inciting him to noble purposes. Where noble pur- 
poses increase the desire to attain the ends of such 
purposes men become more temperate, more enter- 
prising, more industrious, more capable of mental 
and physical exertion, with more self control. These 
virtues shining forth in the character of one man will 
call out such ambition in others as will lead them to 
nobler effort, and so the whole social fabric is im- 
pelled in the way of higher ideals. During an era of 
peace the sciences and arts flourish. War has the 
opposite effect, except in such things as belong to a 
state of war. 

That the Church as a human organization must have 
tares growing among the wheat is testified by uni- 
versal experience. Except he put on the clothing, 
how shall a wolf appear in sheep*s clothing.? How 
shall a hypocrite play his part except an opportunity 
for deception be given him 1 How may he so suc- 
cessfully deceive as by assuming to be what he is 
not, and seeking association with those conceded to 
be the best of society 1 

As in the ancient Church, even in the priesthood, 
were wicked men, so in the clergy of the new dis- 
pensation are there wicked men; and as in the ancient 
Church the ministrations of a wicked priest were 



20 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

effective in cleansing from sin, so in the later Church 
the ministrations of a Judas Iscariot could be as 
effective to those who repented and received baptism 
at his hands as the ministrations of the other 
apostles. We cannot easily over-estimate the pre- 
eminence of the Church. We need to have little 
fear that we will too often attend her worship or the 
administration of her sacraments. 

To those claimants to Christianity, who stand as 
they think, aloof from the Church, we ask what 
would have been the fate of Christianity without the 
Church, and how should her ordinances and sacra- 
ments have been perpetuated? Besides, we are com- 
manded '^forsake not the assembling of yourselves 
together. ' ' 

Among the multitude of religious sects of different 
phases of belief a disregard for the Church with a 
misapprehension of what constitutes the Church per- 
vades the minds of many people, even many Chris- 
tians. Some have lost the idea of the importance of 
the Church, to the extent of supposing that they 
can, as Christians, live consistently without Church 
connections, ever ready to justify themselves on the 
ground that their lives are more blameless than many 
^who are Church officials. They forget, perhaps, that 
the Church is the Bride of Christ, and if the world 
held their views as to duty, the Church with its ordi- 
nances, its officers, its scripture and all would long 
since have been lost in oblivion. In view of the dis- 
>cordant state of the different sects of Christianity, the 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 21 

question will be asked, What constitutes the Church ? 
to which there seems but one answer, and that is 
that the Church being a spiritual kingdom, it must 
be composed of all regenerate believers, of whatever 
shade of belief or race or clime. While this is doubt- 
less true of the Bride of Christ, yet not all who are 
unregenerate can be classed with the tares which 
grow among the wheat. Many of these are not 
hypocrites, and in due time will, if they faint not, 
come to the light. There are many people who 
would be more punctual in the service of the Church, 
more diligent and dutiful in its support, if they were 
better taught as to its dignity and importance, and 
would soon come to a greater love for the Church. 
Whatever may be his Church connection, it is the 
duty of every man to adhere to it, if possible, in 
peace; to prize and value it, and to thank God for its 
privileges. This much is written in behalf of the 
Church as a duty, and in the hope that it may incite 
some to their duty towards the Church. It is written 
to show that the place of the Church in the Christian 
economy is one of paramount importance. Oh, that 
man would learn to love and honor the Church ! It 
is due to a want of the unity for which our Saviour 
prayed that the Church is so lightly appreciated, and 
that charity (love) does not abound with its mem- 
bers. Some claim to be of Paul and others of 
ApoUos, reminding us of the apostles who appeared 
to the Master to stop one who was doing good work 
in His name because he did not belong to their 



22 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

'*set;" and here we risk the charge of repetition by 
declaring that it is not reasonable that of such a 
countless multitude of sects and shades of opinion, 
it does not appear possible that any one sect, con- 
gregation or association of mankind should be so fav- 
ored, fortunate, wise, learned or pure as to hold all 
the orthodox tenets or dogmas of Christianity in per- 
section exclusively, while all the others are more or 
less in error, no more than the writer claims infalli- 
bility in his opinions, although he feels quite sure 
that much error prevails of which he has by patient 
study made discovery. 

Any man of this day, be he pope, priest, deacon, 
presbyter or elder, who believes that his own 
biggoted, and perhaps corrupt Church, or his little 
narrow denomination, however it may be designated, 
is the only one in possession of the truths of the faith 
in perfection, has neither travelled nor read to ad- 
vantage. 

Whatever may be said for the benefit of a rivalry 
between sects, it is sad to note its evil effects and ten- 
dencies. Such, however, is the waywardness of man 
that things sacred must be contaminated by his touch. 
Yet the Church (Christianity) goes forward conquer- 
ing and to conquer, saving men, saving them from the 
devil, from themselves and often from their friends. 

** Like a mighty army, moves the Church of God." 

The progress may be slow, and in many places there 
may be a halt or even retrogression, but like the ex- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 23 

tended wings of an invading army which, by su- 
periority of numbers, strength, strategy and equip- 
ment, it is slowly moving to ultimate triumph; it 
may meet defeat at certain points, losing men, posi- 
tion and stores, yet the victory is to come at last. 
Wherever and by whomsoever the seed may be 
planted in all climes and in all lands, its fruition will 
sooner or later be found, to the joy of every Christian 
heart, whether planted by the quiet ritualist or rant- 
ing teacher of the school of '* Holiness/' 

The man who underrates the power of Christianity 
either fails in thinking profoundly or in observing 
closely. Wherever Christanity reaches the dignity of 
organization it dominates in its influence, although it 
may utterly fail temporarily in raising the com- 
munity to a respectable level of morality. Many 
men are under Christian influence who would be the 
last to acknowledge it, and who would, in fact, resent 
the suggestion with scorn. Such is the effect of the 
atmosphere of Christianity on many such persons 
that in sudden calamities they call, as if by instinct, 
upon God ; they usually desire the last rites of the 
Church, indicative of a faith by and through which 
many of them are finally saved by the gift of eternal 
life. 

In St. John's Gospel is found the prayer of our 
Saviour for unity, which in the first place seems to be 
concerning his disciples, further it seems to be for 
all Christians. Considered in this way, the unity de- 
sired would be spiritual, since such unity is asked as 



24 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

existed then between Himself and the Father, which 
was expressed in the words, "As thou, Father, art in 
me and I in thee,'' and again, *'I in thee and thou in 
me,'' which would be a spiritual relationship and 
connection. 

To interpret this prayer and the desire with refer- 
ence to the Church of.to-day as a spiritual body com- 
posed of all believers seems not an easy undertaking, 
and it is left to those who may feel that they are 
equal to it. 

As it is not possible for men to reach the same 
conclusions in thought, it is not possible for them to 
be congenial in social intercourse. Reared with 
different views of things spiritual, that which is wor- 
ship to one fails to move or arouse the spirit of the 
other. What would be a means of grace or spiritual 
growth to one would be stagnation to another. 

Yet the world grows better within such circum- 
stances of diversity of thought and action. If it be 
Christianity there is good in every variety. This 
day the spirit of the writer is moved in sympathy 
with the words of a negro preacher of Chattanooga, 
Tennessee, who in an address said in substance that 
the secret of the negro's welfare as a people was in a 
true and pure Christianity. In the matter of such 
sentiments all can agree. Yet for close relationship 
as between the high churchmanship of the ritualist and 
the demonstrative advocate of noise, physical exer- 
cise and impromptu prayers and sermons, we may 
scarcely hope this side of the millenium. It would 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 25 

be a long step forward, when they can so understand 
each the other as to concede the credit that each is 
entitled to, for his part in making the world better, 
while bigotry though obstructive is powerless to 
effectually block the way. In that spirit of our Lord 
who said, ''he that is not against us is for us,*' 
we pray for the blessing of God alike upon Jew and 
Gentile, and upon Romanist and Protestant with all 
who call upon His name.^ 

It is the result of meditation and experience that 
there is no common ground of sentiment, in relation 
to matters religious, upon which men of different 
views and temperament can meet; and on this ac- 
count it is feared Church unity, except as a mental 
agreement upon certain fundamental truths, will 
never advance beyond the shadowy form of a Utopian 
dream. 

Unification of organization and effort seems never 
possible to be realized. Notwithstanding we are 
handicapped by diversity of action and thought 
aimdst the heathen people in our efforts to win them 
for Christ, yet it seems the best means available, for 
the work is men, and God wills that through men 
the work is to be done. 

There must be high and low churchmanship, as 
there are to be tall and short men, neither reaching 

^* The elect' and * election,' as used in this chapter, are so 
used advisedly, while the subject will be further elucidated in a 
chapter devoted to it under that head. The terms * high ' and 
* low ' Church are often used arbitrarily. 



26 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

the acme of perfection in every regard. One loves 
form and ceremony in a certain order of perfection, 
and decries emotion, while the other reverses the 
order in his estimation of what is best. 

Psychology, as well as experience, teaches us the 
necessity of appealing to emotion to cultivate a relig- 
ious sentiment, as also to develop the passion of love. 
The emotion of religion, like that of love, should, if 
negative or passive, be drawn out as a matter of educa- 
tion. The Sunday school teacher who fails to 
cultivate the emotional within reasonable bounds, 
proves a failure to the extent of falling short in the 
aim for conversion and regeneration. Coldness in 
love toward God, like coldness in the love of a child 
towards its mother, may result from neglect on her 
part to call out that love. Hence we see the neces- 
sity of cultivating the emotional in the direction of 
the higher virtues, but there is a limit beyond which 
the emotional development should not be carried or 
encouraged, dependent upon the susceptibility of the 
person affected, in that respect. Its inutility and 
possible harm beyond a certain limit should be 
taught in Sunday school and sermons. 

Persons should know — which vast numbers of the 
colored race seem not to know — that emotion is not 
religion. The souls of such people are starved, al- 
though they may observe a certain propriety so long 
as they are under such a delusion. Music is used as 
a powerful agency in emotion, and while it may, if 
devotionally created, ascend as a sweet incense to 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 27 

God, yet without this, it must be worthless as an act 
of worship to God, however perfect in cadence, 
meter or tone, when indulged simply for the pleasur- 
able excitement of emotion. Of course, there are al- 
ways some in a congregation of Christians whose 
souls are engaged in the worship of singing. The 
effects of music should be too well known to be mis- 
taken by thoughtful persons. In some cases calling 
out the loftiest sentiments of man's devotional na- 
ture, while in other cases it invites him to an utter 
abandon of care, or a lively ecstatic glee, as he is 
moved by its melody of sounds. We must not forget 
that music is sensual as it comes to our ears, and 
may be of good effect, or if mistaken as worship may 
be evil to an extent. As music and noise, with what- 
ever may produce excitement, or that which fails to 
reach the dignity of emotion, when substituted for 
religious worship, or mistaken for religion, should 
be at least discouraged; so cold form and ceremony, 
which fail to produce emotion, is, if possible, of less 
value in religious worship. Though there may be no 
visible emotion, yet no man can approach God in 
efficacious prayer, without emotion; for the entire 
absence of it is a certain indication of a meaningless, 
perfunctory act. The most eloquent oratory fails in 
its effects upon men, if there be absence of emotion; 
for one reason that emotion is an evidence of convic- 
tion, and for a second reason that emotion with con- 
viction begets emotion in others, which is a strong 
incentive to action. So that society makes best 



28 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

progress in the higher aims, where progress is led 
by men who can enlist the emotions of others in the 
direction of those higher aims. A man of brutal 
temperament is not susceptible of the higher emo- 
tions, while he may be emotional in anger. 

Religion, should, by cultivation of the best emo- 
tions, bring society to the highest perfection of which 
it is capable, and as such, should be developed in chil- 
dren, when young. 

If high churchmanship finds expression in spiritu- 
ality, and great reverence for things sacred, it may be 
absent in spectacular display, as it may be in shouting, 
ranting and vociferous prayer. Extreme attention to 
either must result in mental diversion. The worship 
of God, to be true and acceptable, demands of man 
his best powers in the concentration of faith, love^ 
adoration, earnestness and humility. 

The service of worship should be such as to engage 
the emotions, and those which have God as an objec- 
tive ; not such as the writer has observed in a Greek 
Church, where traffic in candles proceeded with the 
service; or that observed as expressed in the gloating 
countenance of a Mormon bishop as he sat unmoved 
throughout the service contemplating with satisfac- 
tion the hoard piled up in front of him, the fruit of 
the collection; or such as was produced in him as he 
saw it in others, by an Episcopal service conducted 
in one of our large cities by certain so-called High 
Churchmen, for whom the prayer-book contains noth- 
ing sufficiently imposing or elaborate, who in mag- 



OF REASON AND RE VELATION 29 

nificence of apparel and glimmer of gold and purple, 
marched in procession — priests, choristers, and 
acolytes following one another in genuflexions to 
an image of the Virgin Mary, while acolytes stood 
on either side and supported the half erect, half 
pendant horns — shall we call them — of the Bishop. 
The writer felt none of the emotions of a religious 
service in this, but he did feel serious in comparison 
with his friend — a very high-church clergyman, who 
induced him to accompany him to the church and 
whose first remark upon passing out, was, **How did 
you like the appearance of * Sitting Bull with his 
horns?' " Showing that for once this friend had had 
an overdose of ceremony. No papal bull could have 
excelled that one in awful grandeur. Such an object 
lesson did the occasion yield for this lover of high- 
chruch ceremony, that he was forced to confess that 
the function had failed to produce in him any of the 
effect that should result from the worship of God. 



30 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



II 

SECOND DEATH, ETERNAL LIFE, AND 
ENDLESS PUNISHMENT 

I. Second Death 

THE authority for Second Death is found in four 
references in St. John's Revelation. While the 
narrative is composed mainly of things seen in a vis- 
ion, and which were symbolic or figurative, yet the 
outside facts or words do not belong to the category 
of the visionary which may be understood if we imag- 
ine a person to be telling a dream, by introductory 
words, such as^ **this is a dream," or '*I know this 
as connected with this dream," etc. St. John says 
**This is the Second Death," which is not figurative 
language; as our Lord's explanation of a parable was 
not itself of the nature of a parable. St. John speaks 
of Second Death without comment, as if well under- 
stood in his time, which doubtless it was among the 
disciples.^ 

The object of this chapter being the subversion of 
an ancient and commonly accepted doctrine held by 

^The references are, in Revelation : 2:11, 20:6, 20:14, 21:8. 
In the first case the reference is by an angel, in the other three 
by St. John. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 31 

many Christian people, it is fitting that it have such 
elaboration in quotation and otherwise as its impor- 
tance deserves. In the hope of making the argument 
plain, it is desired that it may escape the appearance 
of supererogation. It is true that the terrors of 
hell — or the Second Death as symbolized in the vision 
of St. John — afford a foundation for a horrible con- 
ception of the punishment of the impenitent, and 
equally the stories told by our nurses of the hot lead 
that would be poured down our throats in the here- 
after if we were bad. The admission into our minds 
of the belief in a second death — a death of the 
soul — furnishes a key to unlock any mystery that 
may attach to the manner or way in which reference 
is made to the lost and redeemed in the Gospels and 
the Epistles. 

We understand why everlasting or eternal life is so 
nearly universally used in reference to the saved, and 
terms indicative of destruction, consumption and 
death so nearly universally applied to the future state 
of the lost. Of a total of seventy-three cases found 
in the New Testament (there may be others) where 
the future state of the redeemed is mentioned the 
words life^ eternal life and everlasting life are used 
sixty-eight times. Of a total of fifty-eight references 
to the state of the lost, forty-nine contain the word 
death or use terms meaning destruction ; hell is used 
three times, everlasting fire three times, darkness 
twice and everlasting punishment once; not includ- 
ing references to St. John's lake of fire \rv Revelation, 



32 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

which means destruction. The New Testament 
writers cited are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, 
Peter, James, Jude — and the unknown writer of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews — nine altogether. Peter, 
James and Paul give death or its equivalent 
altogether (as all references in Hebrews), while 
John gives death always except in connection 
with the Devil and his angels, in his vision; 
St. Jude gives death once and darkness twice; St. 
Paul employs terms of death eighteen times and hell 
once; St. Mark gives five different references, three 
as damnation, two as *'fire that is not quenched and 
the worm that never dieth" — taken from the Old 
Testament; St. Matthew gives us eight references, 
five of which are in terms of death, two as everlasting 
fire and one as everlasting punishment; St. James 
gives three, all signifying death. So we have of New 
Testament references forty-nine for death in absolute 
terms and nine for all others; but if fire^ outer dark- 
ness and eternal damnation be construed as destruc- 
tive, we have fifty-seven for death as against one for 
endless punishment, or eight New Testament writers 
(counting the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
unknown), against one St. Matthew, and he giving 
death in five places. 

The testimony of Old Testament writers is even 
stronger in favor of death, for of sixteen writers 
found, including four writers for Psalms, none speak of 
everlasting punishment, but all except Daniel express 
the end of the impenitent in terms of death — he 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 33 

using the term everlasting shame and contempt; with 
twenty-four witnesses against one, or, conceding 
Daniel's references, twenty-three to two, and fifty- 
seven references in other terms against one for ever- 
lasting punishment ; we may well submit our case 
to any judge or jury with perfect confidence. 
It seems very plain that in the use of the words 
'everlasting life' to denote salvation, the meaning 
of the term would be lost or misunderstood if a soul 
should live forever in 'endless punishment,' as that 
would be everlasting life, as much so as that of the 
redeemed. It also seems plain that everlasting life, 
the life of the redeemed, which is the life of the 
Holy Ghost, is the only everlasting life; and men or 
angels without it are in a state of soul death here, to 
end in final death hereafter. References to sustain 
this should not be needed by readers of the Bible, and 
it should not be necessary to state a self-evident 
truth, that one cannot at the same time be dead and 
alive in the body; while a living soul is in a state 
of death until it receives the eternal life, and without 
such will perish at the judgment. That this doctrine 
was held by the contemporaries of our Saviour is 
shown by the question of the young man who came 
to Him and asked, *'What shall I do to inherit eternal 
life?" 

There are many passages' of scripture which point 

to this everlasting life as also to the death of the 

soul, for instance, ''There is a sin unto death," etc. 

(the unpardonable), i John, S:i6; "Sin bringeth 

4 



34 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

forth death/* James 1:15; **He which converteth a 
sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul 
from death/' James 5:20; *'The wages of sin is 
death, but the gift of God is eternal life/' Rom. 
6:23; *'He that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die," John 11:25, 26; 
*'If a man keep my sayings he shall never see death," 
John 8:51; **He that heareth my word is passed 
from death unto life, " John 5:24; *'As in Adam all 
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 
I Cor. 15. Besides these we have of the Old Testa- 
ment, **Turn yourselves and live. . . Turn . . . 
for why will ye die," Ezek. 18:32 and 33:11. ''Fear 
Him which is able to destroy both soul and body 
in hell," Matt. 10:28. This settles the matter 
of the destructibility of the soul. Where fire is 
used it is in the sense of severe punishment, or as 
an element of destruction. The word 'Gehenna' for 
hell, was taken from a certain place at the bottom of 
a cliff near Jerusalem, over which dead bodies and all 
manner of offal were thrown, and where a constant 
fire was kept burning for the destruction of these 
things. It is reasonable that the word 'Gehenna' 
should have been adopted to denote destruction. 
The words Abadon (Hebrew) and Appollyon (Greek) 
the rulers of perdition, mean destroyer. Our Saviour 
is proclaimed as the destroyer of death, evidently de- 
stroying the second death in those who believe in 
Him, by imparting to them eternal life. ''The last 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 35 

enemy to be destroyed is death." We find in 
Timothy i:io, ''Jesus Christ who hath abolished 
death and brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel.'' In what possible way can 
this scripture be construed but as referring to 
the gospel teaching, as it tells men of a life 
which they may have through Christ, in Christ, 
of Christ, and tells us in the word 'immortality,' 
not only that such life is everlasting but that 
it is eternal; for we must infer that if he brought 
immortality with him, thereby overcoming death, 
mortality or death must have reigned prior to his 
coming; and since there can be no eternal life 
in the flesh, and Jesus Christ's coming was not 
necessary to bodily life, as bodily life was in the 
world from the time of the first creation; then this 
life and death must refer to the soul, and if so 
we can be sure that salvation is life and the loss 
of it is death — life of the soul, eternal life; or 
death of the soul, everlasting death. It seems abso- 
lutely unreasonable to attempt to construe this 
language in any other way. Any and every one 
is hereby invited to controvert the exegesis given 
here of these scripture quotations. This sentence of 
itself is sufficient to establish the fact of the doc- 
trine herein held relating to the life and death of the 
soul. 

Everything goes to show that it was not God's 
design to force men to keep the law and be perfect. 
If He had done so, man's free agency would have 



36 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

been destroyed, or never given to him. Man is so 
constituted that his free will leads him either to life 
or death. God made man for His ov^n glory and 
He does not glory in punishment and suffering. 
Severity of punishment for crime has no deterent 
effect upon criminals. Criminal statistics show that 
where the severest penalites are against crime, the 
more crime exists. The Rev. Endicott Peabody 
writing on athletics and morals says: *'The record 
of history gives evidence that severe punishments do 
not deter from crime. There was more stealing, 
when the penalty for stealing was death, than there is 
to-day. A perfectly organized police system does 
not produce a perfect obedience. Russia would 
lead the world if it did. The making of laws 
does not necessarily eradicate the offense against 
which they are aimed. There are on the 
statute books of Massachusetts laws against pro- 
fanity. One has only to pass along the streets 
of our villages to realize how little these laws 
affect the swearing habit.'' Severity of punishment 
is no deterent to man in his way to do evil. Statis- 
tics show most crime in capital offenses in those 
States which have capital punishment. Severe laws 
for children make worse children. The thought of 
-endless punishment almost makes us stagger. After 
millions of years shall have been passed, looking in 
the direction of the future, punishment will have 
only commenced. Whatever the Roman Church may 
hold on this as doctrine, it is practically demolished, 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 37 

SO far as their people are concerned, by absolution, if 
not in this world, in purgatory. With the protest- 
ants, who do not pray for the dead, the victims are 
expected to writhe and roll in a lake of fire, floundering 
on billows of burning brimstone or in hot carbolic 
acid, having bodies, which, like a salamander or 
some sort of asbestos material, suffers while not con- 
sumed, with no change or diversion except an occas- 
ional butting against a fellow sufferer, who greets 
and reviles him with oaths and curses. If the pic- 
ture be too tragic then credit Dante or another popu- 
lar writer. Yet, * 'Though hand join in hand, the 
wicked shall not go unpunished" (Proverbs). 

There will, without doubt, be time, room and oppor- 
tunity for the impenitent to suffer immeasurably in 
the intermediate state, where they are said to be kept 
in punishment unto judgment. Punishment not in- 
flicted by God but a necessary sequence to the life of 
the punished; as suffering from remorse is the result 
of one's own acts. Neither will such an one die by 
execution, but his death will occur naturally because 
he will not have accepted the eternal life offered him. 
God is only a* Consuming Fire in the sense that 
His law broken becomes a consuming fire to those 
who incur its penalty. ''The mercy of God endureth 
forever." His law will not demand eternal punish- 
ment. Men are the inventors of endless punish- 
ments to be inflicted on some one, but not them- 
selves, yet many men would not — if authority were 
left to them — inflict such punishment upon the 



38 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

worst criminal. Then is not the Creator better than 
the creature ? Will any man declare that God, who 
is Love itself, is not better than any man ? The popu- 
lar idea of a Devil, a monstrous and hideous beast 
which entices men to evil, presiding over hell, and 
becoming executioner of the victims, is found incon- 
sistent, since the Devil and his angels are themselves 
to be destroyed by death, represented as a lake of fire, 
hence we are bought to the conclusion that there is 
no enduring life, except the life of God, and that life 
without God is quite as impossible as the invention 
of perpetual motion by man, and we are brought to 
the further conclusion that it is an error to suppose 
all men immortal ; that while possessed of souls that 
will endure to judgment, they v/ill not survive that 
event, and their banishment from God constitutes 
the loss of existence. 

It is the wish and prayer of the writer that every 
one who reads this chapter, may, if he or she has 
not obtained the endless life of God, be assured it 
is worth the cost of the pursuit to the end of the 
longest sojourn here on earth, and none who will con- 
tinue in that pursuit will be cast out. ''Ye will not 
come unto me that ye might have everlasting life," 
so said the Saviour of mankind, and so it is with 
many to this day. 

While in the main the Revised Version (the 
American) is far superior to any that has gone be- 
fore it; yet in one case at least it has made a change 
which constitutes a loss and not a gain in the i6th 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 39 

chapter and 26th verse of Matthew, to-wit. : ''For what 
is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose 
his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul?" In the Revised Version 'life' is 
made to take the place of 'soul,' which might have 
been done if the word 'eternal' had preceded life, or 
could always be understood as the life meant. As it 
is perhaps to avoid admission of the possibility of 
soul death it is made to read as if referring to the 
death of the body, which construction so emasculates 
the sentence as to entirely destroy its significance. 
By innumerable proofs, scripture teaches us that God 
created man in his own image. As God is a Spirit, 
there are none perhaps who suppose man to be made 
in his physical form like God. 

A large number of men take a step in advance of 
this, and supposing man to be made in the image of 
God spiritually (whatever that may mean), leave 
the subject at that point without further thought. 
But let us go further and see some of the attributes 
of God, of which man may be possessed. There are 
love, truth, justice, patience, sympathy, order, sys- 
tem, etc. If we know what these are in men we 
know them to be the same in God. If we know and 
understand their impulses in men, we may know 
them to be the same in God. If we can contemplate 
their effects and results in one being, we may in the 
other, for these attributes are of a quality and nature 
known as eternal. The power of reasoning is an- 
other such gift to man in which we see the image of 



40 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

God, for reasoning being action by mental process 
toward the investigation of Truth, it is evident that 
Omniscience stands as the acme of truth, while He 
sits as monitor over every structure built by reason. ' 
We are forced here to an issue with the first of the 
Articles of Religion, which declares God to be with- 
out passions; unless love, mercy, sympathy, jealousy, 
etc. , be ruled out of the list of passions. Viewing this 
article as liberally as possible, we will suppose that 
the authors of the thirty-eight articles had reference 
to the sensual passions, and that the articles on the 
whole constitute a patchwork compromise like the 
most of State constitutions. That man is made in 
the image of God then as relates to the passions 
named, is very plain. This much then to show our 
likeness and relationship to God as the Creator and 
first Person of the Trinity. Speaking of Jesus 
Christ, Heb. 2:17 says, ''Wherefore in all things it 
behoved Him to be made like unto his brethren that 
he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest," etc. 
Having been made to see plainly wherein we are 
made in the likeness of God, in all things that con- 
stitute that which is best in us, it is also made plain 
that what is good in man is but the reflection of what 

is in God. 

I 

Our ideas of love, truth and mercy are as His, and ! 
our moral sense must be founded upon our conception 
of truth, which, if correct, is the same as His 
conception of truth. In this school of truth we have 
imbibed a certain moral sense which must be the 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 41 

counterpart of that which belongs to the Divine Char- 
acter, and our conception of right and wrong is the 
same as His. God is not only the Author of man's 
being, but of his destiny. The moral sense of man 
is not shocked at the suffering brought to the prodi- 
gal son by his own course of alienation from his 
father, but our moral sense would be shocked by the 
act of a father who would bring about all the condi- 
tions of suffering. Perhaps no parable more fully 
sets forth the relationship of God to his creatures 
than this of the prodigal son, and being a God of 
love, it is not reasonable that He, as Creator, is not 
better than any of His creatures, as according to the 
observation of men the maker is always superior to 
anything he may make. 

We cannot conceive how a God and Creator who is 
possessed of higher attributes than that of the crea- 
ture, who is a God of love and the author of our con- 
ception and appreciation of it, can be inferior in 
those attributes which he has exalted and glorified in 
the minds of his creatures. The vindictive and ex- 
acting spirit of selfishness in humanity is father to 
the thought of endless punishment. The doctrine 
of verbal inspiration, with refusal to acknowledge 
spiritual fallibility, must yield when it comes in con- 
flict with self-evident truth, and scripture which 
makes God a respecter of persons or a God of par- 
tiality, must be either mistranslated, misconstrued, 
misinterpreted, or interpolated. The time is very 
near at hand when the advocates of endless punish- 



42 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

ment will be found as rare as are now those of pre- 
destination. Man's reason is and will be, more and 
more as time goes on, the undisputed monarch of 
all things pertaining to our mundane sphere as relates 
to the purposes of the Divine Mind which is supreme 
in the universe. 

In the case of predestination, reliance solely upon 
scriptural language literally construed made impreg- 
nable the fortress of radical views, which held undis- 
puted sway over the minds of Christians for ages, 
until reason asserted it supremacy and vindicated 
successfully its own right to be heard. Now that 
logic teaches us incontrovertibly that the radical 
view must subvert all that we hold dear in doctrine 
relating to the love of God, scarcely one can be 
found so poor in reasoning capacity as to do it rever- 
ence. So with the language used in a few instances 
in scripture to sustain the doctrine of endless punish- 
ment. It is entirely convincing to the prejudicial, 
as also to the illogical mind, to find sufficient evi- 
dence to support the theory of endless punishment 
in a few quotations like those of St. Matthew, al- 
though we have three or four score of quotations 
which point to a different conclusion, supported by 
the best and most consistent logic. Strangely those 
who discard the belief in an intermediate state 
should contend for the resurrection of the body, 
claiming that the spirit remains apart from the 
body until judgment; but in some way has no 
life, or is asleep until judgment day, assuming 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 43 

that there is no life without the body. But how can 
they reconcile this with the fact that the just or the 
justified or the regenerate have an eternal life im- 
parted to them here in the body? What is eternal 
life, but unending life ? There seems but one reason- 
able hypothesis upon which to build a rational 
theory consistent with revelation, and that is a dead 
and permanently dead body, and a living soul, having 
eternal life if regenerate; if unregenerate, not with- 
out conscious existence and destined to become more 
so as the darkness of its mental obscurity shuts out 
the light of life; while sorrowful remorse is its con- 
stant attendent to judgment and death, when the last 
ray of light departs forever. Because analogous 
terms are used to express the duration of heaven and 
hell as a finality in each case, those who hold to the 
-doctrine of endless punishment contend that both are 
endless; which would be a reasonable deduction if 
we arbitrarily presuppose endless punishment. But 
let us be careful not to confound cause and effect. 
The effect of alienation of the soul is, in accordance 
with law, death; and death is final, and the state of 
death (we are speaking of states of existence) is end- 
less in duration. So heaven and hell are alike final, 
and although both endless, they are not alike end- 
less; as in one the state continues while in the other 
the state ends. The immortality of the soul then de- 
pends upon the admittance of the life of God, the 
Holy Spirit; which admittance is the entrance into 
the first of the **many mansions." 



44 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

''When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, 
and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death/' 
If lust and sin here mean what they imply, why 
should not death have its own meaning? (and the 
reader is asked to observe here that the qualification 
of the sin is expressed, unfinished, pursued to the 
end, without repentance, bringing forth death). 
What death ? Not the death of the body, for this 
Cometh alike to all, the just as well as the unjust. 
That the death of the body is not the only death, or 
the most important to which man in his natural state 
is liable, is made plain to those who read and study 
the scripture. Paul in the first chapter of his 
second epistle to the Thessalonians says, **And to 
them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, 
who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction 
from the face of the Lord, and the glory of his 
might." Some universalists have gone to great 
lengths in argument to show that the Greek word 
aionion translated as 'everlasting' does not have the 
significance of endless duration, but means age long 
or for a period, and they seem to be correct in their 
contention. But this argument is met by the advo- 
cates of endless punishment with the fact that the 
same terms are used to designate the saved and the 
lost, that is 'everlasting life,' and 'everlasting 
punishment;' but when the term is used with de- 
struction we see how it becomes limited, meaning 
the end of life, destruction. The word 'eternal' is 
used interchangably with 'everlasting' to designate 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 45 

the life of the redeemed beyond the grave, it being 
used much oftener than the latter. The meaning of 
the word is without beginning as without end, which 
would indicate a life contemporaneous with and par- 
taking of the nature of the divine life, hence we 
may infer from the frequent recurrence of the word 
that this divine life is that which constitutes the 
vital principle in the redeemed, consistent with the 
retention of their own consciousness and indi- 
viduality ; and the final solution of this question of 
eternal life, endless punishment and second death, is 
that eternal life is the life of God, which, if we 
choose, we inherit. It is peculiar that the death of 
the body should have been mentioned by both Old 
and New Testament writers, as the ** shadow of 
death," and although it appears to have been used as 
significant of darkness; yet in the 23rd Psalm, where 
it is **the valley of the shadow of death," it does not 
appear as a violent wresting of scripture to construe 
the death of the body in this case as the shadow, the 
death of the soul being the substance or the real 
death. Notwithstanding the preponderance of evi- 
dence, according to every rule of evidence, in favor 
of death or destruction as ending punishment, it is 
not strange that the idea of the punishment of ever- 
lasting fire should have held sway so long, a doctrine 
not more inconsistent with God's mercy than that of 
the predestination of Calvin. There appeared to be 
sufficient warrant for it in scripture, and it furnished 
so many persons the sweet satisfaction of believing 



46 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

that this punishment was to be visited upon their 
enemies. Like other errors, it probably crept in 
during the dark ages. 

Reference to the creed of Athanasias, who in his day 
(about the 3rd century) ranked high in authority as 
opposed to Arius and his heresy, shows the follow- 
ing language, * 'shall punish everlastingly," against 
the unbelievers of his doctrine of the Trinity. The 
word 'fire' having been used figuratively to illustrate 
the severity of the punishment of the impenitent, 
the analogy is not wanting when considered as a con- 
suming or destructive agency, the word 'everlasting* 
being used, at least in one case, to qualify destruc- 
tion, going to show simply that it was to be a de- 
struction without limit, as everlasting life is to be 
. without limit. A most reasonable surmise is, that 
during the dark ages the doctrine of a material hell 
fire and the resurrection of a material body to be 
burned, might be used very successfully to frighten 
men into enlistment into the church, and cause them 
to contribute liberally of their money for the prayers 
of the church toward the relief of their relatives sup- 
posed to be in such a state of punishment. 

If scripture fails to warrant the dogma of endless 
punishment, which under the rules of evidence it does 
fail utterly, it seems that fact should settle the ques- 
tion without a doubt. But those who will not take 
the trouble to investigate, we will address through 
the power of reason. The goodness, mercy and jus- 
tice of God must be conceded and taken always as a 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 47 

self-evident proposition. Angels, like men, are told 
of their final destruction. Even the recently-discov- 
ered logia or words of our Saviour, bear testi- 
mony of the future destruction, to be inferred from 
such words as *' Every one that hearkens to these 
words shall never taste of death/' If any should 
think that the parable of Dives and Lazarus stands 
out as against the position taken in the matter of 
punishment or that of a local heaven or hell, they are 
reminded that this is a parable, and as such does not 
give a real description of a real situation; as no para- 
ble does. It presents a good argument for the sin- 
ner's punishment in an intermediate state, as well as 
the repose of the righteous in a similar state ; with 
the danger of riches in this world and perhaps other 
lessons. 

II. Endless Punishment 

The aim of this book is to correct error, and point 
the way to truth. As truth is sacred and divine, so 
every departure from it will carry one in that direc- 
tion which leads away from God. As we are led 
away from God, we are leaving the pathway of LOVE. 
This word deserves (if any words known to any lan- 
guage deserves), capitals. Love attracts and draws 
gently by slender cords which may be easily severed 
at first; but to which one in time learns to yield, and 
gladly obey, by reason of the pleasure and happiness 
found in such obedience. 

To impart to the young an erroneous idea of God, 



48 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

is worse than making a serious draft on that cord 
which should attach them to their Creator; it is to 
prevent the formation of such cord of attachment, 
the absolute starvation of the soul. This is often done 
by selfish parents who fail to cultivate the love of 
their children toward themselves, forgetting and neg- 
lecting the great source of love. 

How may we do worse than neglect the cultivation 
of love on the part of the young toward GOD ? Can 
we fall short even of this shortness ? Yes, we may 
inculcate such erroneous ideas of God as to call out 
in the young aversion, dread, fear and awe of Him. 
These may be classed as love's opposites. Let us 
remember that the exercise of the reasoning powers 
begins very easily in childhood, and while we are 
often amused by the incongruity in the results of 
their logic, much of their reasoning is amazingly 
correct, of which the world knows nothing. If we 
desire to cultivate within them the love of God — and 
that should be our first aim — we must convince 
them that He is worthy of their love. 

Many facts are known instinctively by children. 
The faintest hint is sufificient to let them know they 
had no choice of existence in the world; that they 
were born into the world without being consulted; 
born in weakness and to the inheritance of sin and 
death, with limited moral power to resist evil. 
When this much knowledge shall have been acquired, 
let the knowledge or an intimation come to them, 
before they can gain an idea of regeneration, justi- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 49 

fication, etc., that the God who controls their 
destinies wills that those who break his laws shall 
suffer endless punishment as severe as burning by 
fire, and it seems very much will have been accom- 
plished toward the alienation of such person from 
God, and towards the prevention of the formation of 
any cord of attachment to God. 

Is this a figment of the imagination, or a real situ- 
ation which confronts us to-day ? Let each one an- 
swer for himself. 

Of all the needs for our advancement toward that 
which is highest and best, the greatest need seems 
to be a development within us of a love for God first, 
and consequentially a love for our fellowman ; the one 
following the other as the day follows the night. 
When we have once known God in his relations to 
man, our love toward Him should follow; but we can- 
not expect a spontaneous growth of that love with noth- 
ing, not even a train of reflection, to bring the obli- 
gation to our minds. Where shall we find a specific 
direction to guide us in this matter? See Deut. 6:4, 
**And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart," etc., as recited elsewhere in this book. If 
so taught by Moses to the Jews, how much less have 
we the same taught us under the Christian dispensa- 
tion.^ If this teaching be neglected or vitiated by 
error, alas! who is able to calculate the loss to the 
world 1 

Not a day passes in the Christian world that the 
wires are not kept busy flashing the details of crime 
5 



50 CHRISTIANITY IX THE LIGHT 

to the newspapers ; which in turn deal them out to a 
public that morbidly rushes after, and gazes and 
gloats upon such food; and this all due to neglect — 
neglect of our people as children, neglect on the part 
of parents and guardians at the impressionable time 
of life, and failure to train and teach for the cultiva- 
tion of that which is best, and the foundation of 
w^hich is love. 

Unworthy parents are filling the world with 
vicious children, leaving the obligation upon others 
to teach them the way of right and truth, or neglect- 
ing them altogether to leave a trail of vice, crime 
and death in their pathw^ay through the world. 

Thousands of mothers absorbed by the demands of 
society or love of dress, or admiration, or other sen- 
sualities, not only fail to guide the young souls of 
their children aright, but by reason of the jealousy 
of their natures succeed in alienating the affections 
of these from their fathers, by preventing correction, 
and insinuations about tyranny; many of them actu- 
ally jealous of the affection that the other might pro- 
mote; while many fathers — absorbed alike in the 
pursuit of gain or the pleasures of the club — never 
take the time to make themselves acquainted with 
their children's characters, much less to think of at- 
tention to the finer qualities of their nature. If 
these are not jealous of attachments that their chil- 
dren may form, they are indifferent on the subject. 
While the latter is incapable of appreciating the love 
he should cherish in his children, the former in her 



OF REASON AND REVELATION 51 

jealous}-, would actually rob God of that to which He 
is entitled and that in the yielding of which the giver 
would be made richer beyond computation. 

Should we not, then, be careful, beyond measure in 
our representation of God, as pertains to his perfec- 
tion of character to our children ? If one love not 
those whom he has seen, how can we hope that he 
may love those whom he has not seen ? — especially if 
he be not shown the way. Like the eunuch who 
was asked by Philip if he understood the Bible 
which he was reading, and answered, '*How can I, ex- 
cept some man should guide me V Whereupon Philip 
seized the opportunity to guide him, and converted 
and baptized him without delay. 

How different would be our situation if all parents 
were guiding their innocent and ignorant children in 
the way of love to God. This should be done, if 
successfully, by convincing them that our God is not 
himself a ''consuming fire," except in a sense, and 
not then willingly. 

Elsewhere in this book the importance of love has 
been emphasized, but that importance cannot well be 
exaggerated. Many Christians seem content to rest 
with the assertion that the fear of God is the begin^ 
ning of wisdom, without reflecting that the word 
'beginning' has great importance in the quotation,, 
and is really intended to be accepted in its fullest 
sense, which implies that such fear is the beginnings 
and only the beginning, of wisdom. More mature 
wisdom should not be fear, for "perfect love casteth 



52 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

out fear;" and again, '^there is no fear in love;" and 
we have such quotations as this, ''His love is per- 
fected in us," and ''Herein is our love made per- 
fect." To which may be added the words of St. 
Paul to Timothy in his 2nd Epistle ist chapter and 
7th verse, "For God has not given us the spirit of 
fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 
Fear hath punishment, or is founded in anticipation 
of punishment. 

If we love God and keep His commandments 
we will have no fear. Our fear will pass away 
the moment our love becomes perfect. We should 
cultivate that love by keeping our minds upon 
God and His mercy toward us. Day by day we 
should magnify His holy name, and worship Him in 
our thought forever and forever; then our love for 
God and man will increase and our lives be happier 
here on earth, while we secure eternal life for the fu- 
ture state. 

So the proof of which is the fact that "He 
wills" — using the same word — "that all should 
be saved" and to that end, "should be brought 
to a knowledge of him through Jesus Christ." 
'Teach, train and talk to your children about this 
jlove. 

But, one asks. Does not the Bible say God is an 
avenging God.? Another asks. Is not God a jealous 
God? While another asserts in a tone of inquiry, 
God certainly visits the sins of the fathers upon the 
children, and God is a consuming fire. To all of 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 53 

which the answer must be in the affirmative as being 
true, consistently with God's mercy and love as well 
as his impartiality. In such cases God in name and 
personality stands as the representative of His law. 
First we must know that the law of God is the law of 
good, which law avenges wrong toward itself through 
compensation, whatever contravenes the law of good, 
thereby becomes evil and brings its own punishrnent, 
which is the revenge of good. God is justly a jeal- 
ous God, since no idol image or thing should usurp 
the homage and worship due Him, as a husband or 
wife is justly jealous of affection diverted to another, 
God visits the sins upon the children by the law un- 
der which like begets like, but if the children will 
keep His commandments. He will enable them to 
overcome the evils of heredity. His law is a consum- 
ing fire in the sense of an agency of destruction 
which may be in the destruction of a lost soul a 
blessing disguised, compared with endless punish- 
ment for that soul. This consuming fire is like the 
lake of fire seen by St. John in his vision, truly 
typical both of the punishment and the destruction 
of the wicked, but symbolic only, as his vision of a 
local heaven. 

It is said that broken law must be expiated. 
There must be vindication of right; wrong must be 
avenged; sin must be atoned, etc. We do not gain 
the idea from human experience; on the contrary^ 
very few of a vast number of infractions of law, meet 
expiation, and in the vast number of those, pardon is 



54 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

extended long before expiation is complete. The 
number of criminals who are not apprehended exceed 
those who are; but graated that every infraction met 
full expiation, human life, in comparison with 
eternity, is so short, that we cannot find in human 
experience that which will give us the proper concep- 
tion of the awful stupendousness of endless punish- 
ment. But poor narrow, grovelling minds, not only 
tell us that we know nothing of God's nature — as to 
love and hate, good and evil, the necessity of vindi- 
cation of law, etc., but they — while they would ig- 
norantly, I confess — make a monster of the God 
whom it is our prayer and soul's desire to love as we 
are commanded, say that our conclusions, founded 
on the love and mercy of God, are suggestions made 
to us by the devil, when the preponderance of evi- 
dence both of revelation and reason are overwhelm- 
ingly on the other side. Some of these are good 
men, whom we would not charge with being under 
devilish influence personally, but we think they have 
absorbed their ideas from seed sown by the devil in 
the minds of men during the ages, with a view on 
the part of the evil one to drive men away from 
God. 

We are reminded that many of those who hold such 
views of God and His law are the descendants of the 
witch-burners, of those who so long held the doctrine 
of predestination, and of infant damnation, and who 
for a time believed that Sunday schools were an in- 
vention of the devil. Some of these who are recent- 



OF REASON AND REVELATION 



ly slackening their hold on Predestination are most 
uncompromising in clinging to Endless Punishment. 
The writer in a discussion with one of these— a 
man of scrupulous conscience — asked this man if he 
would, were it left to his decision, condemn any one 
to suffer endless punishment? His reply, after 
some hestitancy, was, that he would, he knowing 
what conclusion would follow a negative answer, i, ^., 
that he would be making himself more lenient and 
merciful than God would be. We shall not comment 
upon his own dilemna, we indulge in no execration 
of these good people, as many of them are honest 
and good, their only trouble consisting in ignorance. 
We expect to meet many of them in Paradise, where 
they will learn to recognize their errors. Many 
witch-burners will be there, with those who have 
persecuted other Christians and Jews; with others 
still who have perpetrated great wrongs in igno-' 
ranee, supposing they were doing God a service, as 
Saul (St. Paul) supposed he was, while persecuting 
the Christians. There is no intention to under- 
estimate the importance of maintaining the majesty 
of law for deterrence from crime ; yet the law should 
be a servant, not a master. Slavery to law, in the 
hands of tyranny, is the worst of slavery. Let us 
know the truth, and the truth will make us free; 
free a thousand times, free from superstition, free 
from groundless fears, free from dreadful apprehen- 
sion of unseen and unknown dangers, free from false 
conceptions of a loving Father and Brother, who are 



56 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

above and over all, and ready and willing to succor 
and defend from all adversity. 

III. Second Death 

A deeply interesting train of thought is suggested 
by St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans, 2:6, et seq.y 
also 5:10, II, 12, et seq. He says, **For until the 
law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed 
when there is no law." Nevertheless death reigned 
from Adam to Moses, showing that reference is 
had to the Mosaic law. Reading from Romans 
3:12, ^^For as many as have sinned without law, 
shall also perish without law," etc. Taken together 
we see the urgent necessity for the visit of our 
Saviour to the Adamic race who lived from Adam to 
Moses, that salvation might be offered them who were 
in a state of death, although they were not culpable 
for any sin which they had committed without law. 
Christ's visit was to offer them eternal life, when, no 
doubt, some accepted and others rejected, as inti- 
mated by what St. Paul says in that connection. 
Speaking of him who shall render to every man ac- 
cording to his deeds, our Saviour says (John 15:22), 
''If I had not come and spoken unto them they had 
not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their 
sin" . . . ''but now have they both seen and hated 
both me and the Father" (this is the state of the un- 
pardonable). 

We have Matt. 10:28, "Fear not them which kill 
the body but are not able to kill the' soul, but fear 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 57 

him that is able to kill both soul and body in hell.'' 
It is not easy to have a proper <:onception of this 
dual destruction in a local hell, but hell viewed as a 
state of life, it becomes more explicable. There are 
many other references in regard to the death of the 
soul too numerous to mention seriatim. Sin seems 
destructive of the life of the soul as in case of Adam 
and Eve; the vitalizing principle which constitutes 
the enduring quality of soul-ife, and which is given 
to it by the presence of the Holy Spirit, was lost to 
them by disobedience: ^'For in the day that thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Since it is not 
reasonable that the physical man was made immortal, 
and he did not die physically at the time of the 
transgression, the death in this case could have had 
no reference to anything but the souls of our first 
parents. This is further corroborated by what is said 
elsewhere, ''For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive.'' Certainly Christ did not 
die for the benefit of our bodies, but for our souls. 
It is plain then, that, by the Adamic sin we are all 
in a state of death by nature until we obtain the 
gift of everlasting life, by the Holy Spirit's coming 
into our souls. There is no doubt that our first 
parents, through faith and repentance, regained what 
they lost. 

St. Paul says Adam was not tempted, but the wom- 
an. If we construe this literally it appears our con- 
clusion should be, that Adam did not yield to any 
desire for the apple, or for the knowledge offered by 



58 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

the Evil one; but knowing that Eve would die, as 
God had said, perferred to die with her, and deliber- 
ately ate that he might die and be with her. This 
seems most probable, as he had spent some days of 
loneliness, perhaps, in the garden before her coming, 
after which event, our maternal ancestor being one of 
the loveliest of women, it is reasonable to suppose 
time passed very pleasantly with the man who may 
have had an indistinct idea of what death signified; 
and in any event wanted to be with Eve, dead or 
alive. We repeat, then, at the risk of reiteration, 
that every person — excepting Jesus Christ, John the 
Baptist, and Melchizedek (the latter not born), and 
there may have been other exceptions — born under 
natural law, is in a state of death until he or she 
receives spiritual and eternal life from God, without 
which he or she must perish at the end. 

The following language of St. Matthew 25 129, 
*'For unto every one that hath shall be given and he 
shall have abundance, but from him that hath not 
shall be taken away even that which he hath," else- 
where (13:12), is slightly changed, ''more abund- 
ance" being used instead of ''abundance." Luke 
19:26 says, *'Unto every one that hath shall be given, 
and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall 
be taken away from him." In chapter 8:18 the same 
meaning is conveyed as here, and in both cases by 
Matthew; with the exception that in Luke 8:18 is 
added "that which he thinketh he hath," with a 
marginal note added "or seemeth to have." It is 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 59 

reasonable to suppose that the language used in three 
instances is more acceptable as being correct than 
that in the <^;^^ case, where are the additional words, 
**That which he thinketh (or seemeth) to have." 
However, many are liable to stumble at the meaning 
to be conveyed in the first cases, and to ask how, 
that which he hath not, can be taken from a man. 
A casual glance v/ould leave the impression that 
whatever might appear as obscure in the three cases 
had been elucidated by the additional words in the 
last case, yet in a correct view the three cases as 
they are entitled to, in reason and in law, must domi- 
nate. Evidently reference is intended to be made to 
eternal life; and soul-life without eternal life being 
a separate and distinct condition, it may be truly 
said that at the last if one hath not eternal life he 
will lose that which he hath — soul-life — and having 
previously lost physical life, will lose all that he had 
or even seemed to have. May we add, 'thought that 
he had?' namely immortality, and so the language 
would be correct in every case. 

Let us then, always, view the salvation of God as 
the possession of eternal life in the true sense of a 
possession of a thing (or condition) which has been 
obtained, inherited or granted (as you like), without 
which we cannot endure beyond the judgment, and 
many difficulties in understanding Revelation will be 
removed. 

As stated elsewhere in the matter of endless pun- 
ishment, the Greek for 'everlasting,' a word we find 



60 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

connected with punishment in a few instances only^ 
is aionio7i, from aio7t, the definition for which in 
Westcott and Hort's Greek-English Lexicon is **an 
indefinitely long time, an age — evidently not end- 
less.'' (?) In the quotation, Jude i :6, **Angels which 
kept not their own principality but left their proper 
habitation he hath kept in everlasting bonds," etc., 
the word ^everlasting' is used to designate a period of 
time extending to, and, by inference, ending at the 
judgment. In this case the Greek aiomon is the 
same as St. Matthew uses, with reference to punish- 
ment. Scholars must admit, however much we in- 
vestigate as to words and their meaning, there must 
always be doubt where authorities differ, not only as- 
to the proper rendering of the Greek into English, 
but doubt in some cases where words are similar in 
sight or sound as to what word was originally the 
word of the text ; hence we are at last in many cases 
thrown back upon reason to help us out of difficulties. 
Can this be an unwarranted resort, since the God of 
our religion has commanded us to judge that which 
is right; and the apostles Peter and Paul have en^ 
joined us to try all things, to hold fast that which is 
good, and to be able to give an answer to every one. 
that asketh for a reason for the hope that is in us 1 

IV. Eternal Lif'e 

.Those passages of Scripture which may be quoted 
to show the very close relationship which will exist 
in time between the Father and the Son, together 



OF RE A SON A ND RE VELA TION 61 

with the redeemed of men, are as follows: St. John 
5:26, 'Tor as the Father has life in himself, so hath 
he given to the Son to have life in himself," this 
evidently having reference to eternal life. Again, 
St. John 17:21, ''That they all may be one as thou 
Father art in me and I in thee, that they all may be 
one in us," etc. "And the glory which thou gavest 
me I have given them, that they may be one even as 
we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they 
may be perfect in one." This shows so plainly and 
unmistakably the close relationship that is to be in 
the world of the redeemed beyond the grave, that 
there can be no error in reckoning the state of those 
who may have eternal life within them when they 
shall have attained the Kingdom of Heaven, which is 
final. 

If one's life be so merged into that of a higher 
power, is it not to be supposed that the purposes, 
aims, etc., of that higher power will become the 
purposes, etc., of those who come into His life.? 

Then let us think no more of persons being con- 
tinuously engaged in musical exercises in heaven, for 
music belongs to the things that are sensual, and we 
have no conception, and can have none, of what music 
would be to a spirit or in a spiritual state. 

There is perhaps no prayer more highly prized by 
Anglicans than the prayer of St. Chrysostom, ending 
with the sentence, "Granting us in this world knowl- 
edge of thy truth, and in the world to come, life ever- 
lasting ;" admitting — as shown — that everlasting life 



62 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

may come to some in the future, or intermediate 
state, yet it seems our prayer should be that as re- 
generation and salvation, we should seek and pray 
for it in this life; and since it is our hope to increase 
in knowledge of the truth in the future life, it seems 
a reversal of the order of the petition would be ap- 
propriate, which would change it to, **Granting us 
in this world life everlasting and in the world to 
come ever increasing knowledge of thy truth/' Our 
Saviour said, ''Verily he that believeth in me hath 
everlasting life," putting it in the present tense. 

It was the importance of this life that our Saviour, 
relegating every other subject to the background, 
meant to impress upon Nicodemus, a ruler of the 
Jews ; who not wishing to be seen as giving atten- 
tion to a supposed disreputable character, sought 
Him at night. 

Regeneration, being born again, otherwise desig- 
nated as 'eve^dasting life' and 'eternal life,' our 
Saviour recognising in this man an honest seeker after 
truth, gave him the most important of all truth which 
touches the life of man in time or eternity. This con- 
stituted, most probably, all of the teaching Nico- 
demus ever had on this subject; but that he accepted 
and apropriated the truth to his own best purpose is 
witnessed in the fact that afterwards when the 
Saviour's enemies would have arrested Him without 
cause, he is at hand to offer a protest, and at the last 
he comes with the myrh and aloes to pay his 
last tribute at the burial of one who had been to 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 63 

him immeasurably more than a friend. Like Mary, 
he had not failed to '^ponder in his heart" the im- 
portant truth he had gained. 

Many preachers and Sunday school teachers con- 
sume time teaching in utter neglect of this paramount 
truth. These seem to think it their duty to compass 
the whole wide range of scientific learning in their 
teaching. Some would confine themselves to Church 
history or Bible history or location of references on 
the Lord's prayer and the commandments, etc., with- 
out reference to the important truth which should 
be brought home and made applicable to every in- 
dividual consciousness, by such pressing appeal, and 
such interested motive arising from conviction, as 
will elicit in hearers or pupils responsive interest and 
emotion. Let the fire that sparkles in the eye 
gleam with the light of the Holy Ghost which is 
within and behind it, when that is the great theme 
to be considered, that others may be moved to avail 
of the offer of eternal life. 



64 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



III 
RESURRECTION OF THE BODY 

THE word ^resurrection/ from two Latin words, 
re and surgo, is used to convey different meanings 
in scripture, dependent upon the connection in which 
it is used, as many other words. The resurrection 
of the body and that ;)f the soul, if considered with- 
out discrimination, results, with many, in mental 
confusion. Resurrection in the one ca«e is used to 
signify rising from death, in the other case as a rising 
from a lower to a higher state of life, as from a state 
ot comparative somnolence to that of greater wakeful- 
ness of consciousness. If the reader will carefully 
retain the distinctions in mind, he will be better able 
to avoid and overcome the tendency to mental con- 
fusion liable to arise in discussion of the subject. 
We will assume that no Christian doubts that the 
reference in the case of our Saviour's resurrection is 
to the rising of the body after death, or that there 
was a resurrection in the case of Lazarus and others. 
There was in these cases either the revivifying of 
the body from absolute death or resuscitation from 
seeming death (coma, perhaps) to a normal state of 
life. It is to be borne in mind that resurrection in 
the cases named is a thing very different from a uni- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 65 

versal resurrection of all flesh, as taught by the 
creeds of most Christian churches. For this doctrine 
there is no proof to be found where formerly located 
in the Old Testament scripture, and none discovered 
by the writer in the New. 

The references in Ezekiel, 37th chapter, and in 
Isaiah, 26:19, relate to the Jewish nation, as is shown 
by the connection. That of Daniel, 12th chapter, 
2nd verse, refers to spiritual resurrection exclusively, 
while the contempt there named, if construed in the 
sense of punishment, does not necessarily imply end- 
less in duration. 

Job, 19th chapter, 26th and 27th verses, which the 
writer recalls as his mother's citation quoted to him 
in his childhood, and the passage which has stood as 
the bulwark of defence to believers in the resurrec- 
tion in the flesh through the ages, has been not only 
swept away as such, but has been converted and 
turned against their position. The language of the 
authorized version, ''Yet in my flesh shall I see 
God," having been changed, both in the Revised Ver- 
sion and in the Episcopal Marginal Bible, to 
** Without my flesh shall I see God." 

The study of psychology discovers to us the 
tenacity with which the mind clings to early impres- 
sions; rather, to be acurate, the durability of the im- 
pressions made on the mind in early life. Genera- 
tion after generation having imbibed with the 
mother's milk these errors, including this one of the 
resurrection of the flesh, it becomes, in the view of 
6 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



many, the sacred duty to pass it on down; and 
this, notwithstanding St. Paul's effort, which 
seems to have exhausted his ingenuity in trying to 
demonstrate a resurrection in which the flesh had no 
part. This effort at explanation of the partition of 
the soul and body, or body and spirit, as you like, at 
the death of the body, he supplemented with the 
positive assurance that '^flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the kingdom of Heaven." It must be a fertile 
imagination that can make him mean anything else 
here than what he says. It will not answer the 
argument for the friends of the creed to say that it 
has reference to a spiritual body, for the Greek 
word, sarx, means flesh, literally; and to bring this a 
little nearer to a certainty, in the office for the visi- 
tation of the sick, the word *flesh' is used in the 
Episcopal prayer-book, and the sick person is re- 
quired to repeat it after the clergyman, declaring 
that he believes ''in the resurrection of the flesh.** 
And so if Episcopalians believe in the resurrection of 
a spiritual body, they should advocate a change in 
the creed and let it say so, and then we will ask 
them to differentiate between a spiritual body and a 
spirit. The doctrine of a spiritual body bears 
a resemblance to the Romish doctrine of 'transub- 
stantiation;' in the one case the real bread and wine 
which is offered in the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper is held to be the real body and blood of 
Christ; in the other case, where some deny the 
resurrection of the material body, they insist on the 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 67 

word 'body/ and a compromise is attempted by- 
calling it a 'spiritual body.' 

In the 6th chapter and 63rd verse of St. John's 
Gospel, our Saviour says, ''It is the spirit that 
giveth life, the flesh profiteth nothing." "That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is 
born of the spirit is spirit," are the words he used 
to Nicodemus. And with the authority of St. Paul, 
as he does — or his translators make him use these 
words, which simply mean a spiritual entity or in- 
dividual consciousness — the word 'body' is evident- 
ly used that way for the want of a better term, to 
show, as it does elsewhere, that the person, although 
a spirit, was yet the same person, having the same 
identity and consciousness; as to this day we say 
somebody did or said, meaning some person without 
reference to the physical body. 

Our Saviour said, "A spirit hath not flesh and 
bones as ye see me have." 

We must not forget the necessity for our Saviour 
to return to his disciples that they might believe; 
and, as a miracle, there is no reason why his body 
could not have been preserved without corruption for 
that purpose, and no reason why his appearance to 
them might not have been in the way of an appari- 
tion; and in his ascension there is no reason why his 
body might not have been disposed of by his Father, 
as in the case of Moses and Elias and Enoch. So the 
fact of our Saviour's resurrection may not be used 
as an argument for the resurrection of all men. 



68 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

St. Paul, in Romans 7:24, says, *' Who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death?" applying the word 
*body' to something both inanimate and imper- 
sonal, and using the same Greek word, soma, (in 
its Genitive case somatos), as is used in the isth 
chapter, ist Corinthians, in relation to the natural 
body, thus we see in what apparent disregard of 
their true meaning many words are used in the 
Bible. From some unexplained cause, many per- 
sons have a settled conviction that the life of a 
soul cannot be destroyed, ^'but the soul that sinneth 
it shall die," (Prov. 20:2), and we are told to ''fear 
Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in 
hell" (or in the grave), Matt 10:28. 

True, St. Paul says there is a 'natural body,' re- 
ferring to a body of flesh, and there is a 'spiritual 
body.' We know these are two different states of 
life by the connection in which he is speaking. Evi- 
dently the word 'body' does not have the same 
meaning in both cases; that is, as a body of flesh and 
blood, for he says that "flesh and blood cannot in- 
herit the kingdom of heaven;" and again it is evi- 
dent that it does refer in each case ' ta a state of 
-existence, and the words 'natural body' mean a 
body of flesh, 'spiritual' referring to a state after 
death. So we have, by reasonable deduction, that he 
meant (and the translation should have so expressed) 
there is a bodily existence, and there is a spiritual 
existence, or a bodily entity and a spiritual entity. 
The word 'spiritual' in this case being applied equally 



I 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 69 

to soul and spirit, which dp not always signify the 
same state of life, inasmuch as a regenerate soul is a 
spiritualized soul, while an unregenerate soul (as it 
has not eternal life) is not immortal and will not en- 
dure beyond the judgment. The trinity state, it 
seems, does not come to men before regeneration, 
unless we assume intellect as disconnected from both 
soul and body, which is not reasonable, unless we 
assume that the brute creation possess a dual life. 
Resurrection, as applied to the redeemed, doubtless 
means rising to a higher life, which would be a 
spiritual life as higher than the life of the body, and 
it is reasonable tHat the same word would be used as 
to the revivifying of the spirits of the lost in calling 
them to judgment. There is perhaps no quotation 
so strong as an argument for the resurrection of the 
body, as that found in Romans 8:ii, to-wit: *'But if 
the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead 
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead 
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit 
that dwelleth in you." The words 'mortal bodies' 
with the quickening seem insurmountable here, were 
it not that this same author is so explicit to tell us 
that the body which shall rise, shall not be the same 
body, but a 'spiritual body,' and further, ''that flesh 
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." 
So the quickening meant must be of the spirit. 
Our most rational conclusion, then is, that there is a 
soul or spirit resurrection (not from death, but from 
a state of repose, resembling perhaps, a state of 



70 CHRISTIAXITY IX THE LIGHT 

bodily sleep in which there is consciousness, as evi- 
denced by dreams). May not spirits in an inter- 
mediate state be kept in a state of limited conscious- 
ness until judgment, which would account for that 
state being so often spoken of as a sleep? 

A certain editorial of the Church Standard placed 
the writer in most excellent company (that of the 
late Dr. Fulton) in the matter of the resurrection of 
the flesh or material body, yet he regrets that he 
cannot fully endorse all that is said on the subject by 
such an eminent authority. The writer prefers to 
call a body a body, and a spirit a spirit, as he be- 
lieves St. Paul did, or meant to do, and would do 
w^ere he living to-day; although the words 'spiritual 
body' are used in the authorized version, v\-hich 
were not used in the Greek, the word 'soma (body) 
being left out in the last reference, which might have 
been designed, in which case the sentence can very 
well be construed as: ''There is a natural body, and 
there is that which is spiritual;" the word 'body' 
having been used to designate the individual con- 
sciousness as an entity. Body and spirit seem to 
the writer antithetical terms, as 'life and death,' 'heat 
and cold, ' 'good and bad. ' A body cannot be a spirit, 
or a spirit a body, hence there is no such thing as a 
spiritual body, except in the sense named. 

Jesus Christ saith, John ii :24, "I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life, he that believeth on me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth on me shall never die." If Christ be 



OF RE VELA TION AND REASON 71 

the resurrection, His presence is signified in the 
resurrection; if present, it must be as an active force; 
and if God is a Spirit, He must be present as a 
spiritual force. An active spiritual force implies 
something to act upon, which must be spiritual; 
then we have the Holy Ghost acting in or upon the 
soul of man which gives eternal life, in the case of 
the redeemed and those who have or shall fall asleep 
in Jesus (ist Cor. 15:18), and such as He will raise up 
at the last day (John 6:40). There can be no doubt 
that in like manner God will raise up those who have 
rejected the Saviour, bringing them to a livelier and 
higher state of consciousness or knowledge of their 
condition, from a state of semi-somnolence, to a live- 
lier sense of shame and contempt, which will be their 
resurrection preceding their death. St. John says, 
John 5:29, '*The hour cometh when all that are in the 
tomb shall hear his voice and come forth; they that 
have done good to the resurrection of life, and they 
that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation;'* 
showing resurrection to mean rising to a higher state 
of existence relatively. If one believes God to be 
formed of flesh and bones, he may well accept the 
doctrine of the resurrection of the body, but the Bible 
teaches us that God is a Spirit, and that in the heaven- 
ly state we are to be like He — with Him and with 
the Saviour. We are to be forever with Them. 
God as a Spirit is known to be everywhere in the 
universe; how then can there be anything material 
in His personality.? And if we are to be with Him, 



72 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

and like He is, how can we partake of material- 
ity ? 

We are reminded here that natural law governs in 
the spiritual world as in the material world, except 
when arrested or changed by a miracle; if this were 
not true we would not be able to comprehend the 
state of comparative rest to which the Creator re- 
tired after the long periods of varied creation through 
which he brought the earth in preparing it for man's 
habitation. 

Scarcely any one will deny that the resurrection of 
our Saviour, with that of Larazus and others men- 
tioned in Scripture, as also the taking up of Elijah, 
Enoch, etc., were miracles — departures from the 
natural law — and if these were miracles the ordinary 
methods of death are natural, in which the body dies 
and returns to the dust from whence it came. As it 
is said, ''Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return. '' 

Concerning spiritual bodies, as the term body was 
used, with reference to a spirit as an entity, just as a 
fact which is without existence in the material world 
may be called a thing. For instance: this is some- 
thing you did not know, so the word 'body' may be 
attached to spiritual; but there is another sense in 
which the words 'spiritual body' may be used or 
might have been used, and that was where the ap- 
pearance was plainly an optical illusion, not that the 
appearance was not a real appearance, but that it was 
only apparent, as in the case when our Saviour met 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 73 

Mary immediately after His resurrection, and for- 
bade her touching him, doubtless because she would 
find upon the attempt to embrace Him, that his real 
body was not there. So with the appearance of the 
angels to Abraham ; we are taught in scripture that 
angels are spirits and have not bodies; yet they as- 
sume the bodily appearance to him because it was 
not possible for him, with material eyes, to see a 
spirit. Thus it was that Saul (St. Paul) saw our 
Saviour in heaven, apparently, while on the road to 
Damascus. One traveling with Saul, would not, 
probably, have seen the vision^ which word itself has 
a different significance from that of real sight. 
Paul might have had reference to such appearance 
of spirits in bodily form, in the use of the words 
'spiritual body.' 

A friend having asked, in connection with the sub- 
ject under discussion, an opinion of John 5 :28, 29, 
to-wit: ^'Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming 
in which all that are in their graves shall hear his 
voice — and shall come forth, they that have done 
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have 
one evil unto the resurrection of damnation." The 
anwser is that under no reasonable construction can 
this scripture have special significance in relation to 
the resurrection of the body. The points which our 
Saviour emphasized, as shown, by the preceding scrip- 
ture use of the word 'graves,' could have no special 
significance, as a resting place of bodies, for millions 
of bodies of Christians were never buried in graves. 



74 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Many were burned, others devoured by wild beasts, 
and many were drowned in the depths of the sea. 
This much if we are confined to Christians only as 
the persons to be called to resurrection; but all of 
mankind will be called to resurrection, not literally 
from graves, or from the ocean, or from the air, 
which contains every moment an amount of the 
gases from the decomposed bodies of men ; but from 
the invisible soul world these people will be addressed 
through their consciousness and summoned to appear 
at the bar of judgment. The term 'graves' is used 
in a general sense with regard to all the dead ; and 
the voice in a general sense as relating to* the call or 
summons, and these facts must remove from the 
mind any impression created to the effect that the 
Saviour will literally stand upon the brink of every 
or any grave and call out each individual body from a 
resting place whence that body, in greater part, had 
long since ascended and taken its abode in a tree, or 
been wafted away on the wind, or consumed by an 
animate creature and changed form and location per- 
haps thousands of times. We cannot construe the 
quotation literally, for we are certain that these 
bodies are not now in the grave, as such; though all 
the whole world at death might have had burial in 
graves, they having been dissolved in most cases. 
So if they are to come forth as bodies of flesh, it 
would necessitate their being placed there as such in 
a miraculous way before the time of being called 
forth, which would require a remaking of all the 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 75 



bodies, then we would ask whence the necessity of 
placing them back in the graves to be called out? 
Now, beyond this, if a real voice is to sound and to be 
carried in the natural way to the ears of flesh, what 
is the probability of its being carried through sound 
waves to a depth of six feet in the ground that it may 
be heard? All this you say may be overcome in a 
miraculous way, but we are not discussing miracles, 
and the more we discuss it the more confusion in- 
creases in an effort to discredit the Apostle Paul. 

People otherwise intelligent are found who, with 
superficial view, base their belief in the resurrection 
of the body upon its necessity for recognition of 
friends and relatives in the life to come. How 
narrow must be the comprehension of these in rela- 
tion to the spiritual state. The promise to the re- 
deemed is that they shall not only be forever with 
God, but they shall be as He is, and one with Him. 
If God is omniscient, and they are to be like Him, 
shall they not recognize the redeemed as they will 
recognize God ? 

But regarding rising as 'miraculous' vs, 'natural' it 
may be said that Moses and Elias appeared to the 
disciples in bodily form. There is no doubt of this, 
but remember it said they 'appeared,' and hence it 
may have been only an appearance, or otherwise ex- 
pressed as an apparition, and we must remember that 
they could not have been seen if they had appeared 
as spirits, and they had to take bodily form in the 
eyes of the disciples. If we were not sustained, as 



76 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

we are, by scripture in the position taken, we would 
still have the strongest grounds in reason for it. 
The spiritual body theory, as held, is without any 
good foundation in reason. Our Saviour had full 
control of his body whether the spirit was in or out 
of it, all of which is apparent from the way in which 
he was permitted to walk a distance with his dis- 
ciples while he concealed his identity, appearing in a 
room when the doors were not opened, etc. 

The interchangeability of matter of which the body 
is composed makes it a physical impossibility that 
the bodies of men should be resurrected in their 
original material; since many of them by reason of 
the continuous changes which bodies are passing 
through would make it necessary that the material 
substance should be in the body of a man to-day, in 
that of a beast to-morrow and that of a tree in the 
next view, returning to again occupy its place in a 
second man, and so on in a continuous circuit, until 
perhaps a hundred men would become claimants for 
the same substance, ''for all flesh is as grass, and all 
the glory of man as the flower of the grass ; the grass 
withereth and the flower fadeth away," ist Peter, 
1 :24. 

Another question arises as to what age of our 
bodily lives shall be represented in our resurrection. 
Will infants have the bodies in which they were at 
the time of death, and be possessed of bodies not ma- 
ture enough for locomotion? Will persons of ex- 
treme old age or wrinkled decrepitude return to oc- 



OF RE A SON A ND RE VELA TION 77 

cupy their bodies ? Or will the deformed have the 
same bodies? And what of Elijah and John the Bap- 
tist, who were the same person, or conscious spirit, 
as testified by the prophets, and confirmed by the 
Christ, occupying in time two distinct bodies. Those 
who doubt must doubt the Saviour's word, or, as in 
other cases of predilection, explain it away. Let 
doubters explain how John was filled with the Holy 
Ghost from his mother's womb. If such will read 
carefully the circumstances of his birth, life and 
work, with the prophecies regarding him, they will 
perhaps look upon the facts with wonder; and, with 
the writer, decide they are second only in importance 
in the world's history to those relating to the 
Saviour of mankind. 

Scripture teaches us in many cases that angels are 
spirits. Our Saviour said, *'A spirit hath not flesh 
and bones." St. Luke, in answer to a question re- 
lating to marriage in Heaven, says we are to be like 
angels, etc. St. Paul, referring in Hebrews 12:23 to 
heavenly rewards, speaks of ^^the spirits of just men 
made perfect. ' ' 

The error of the resurrection of the body which 
was found most plausible for those who in the inter- 
est of a brimstone-and-fire theory, made it a terror 
to mankind, and reaped, through masses for dead and 
living, a rich harvest; while many have derived com- 
fort in the thought that their enemies, perhaps their 
neighbor, supposed always worse than themselves, 
would thereby reach their reward; has as a doctrine 



78 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

caused more confusion of thought than any tenet of 
any and all of the Christian creeds. 

This error granted, and there follows a local hell 
of burning fire for the impenitent, where the body as- 
sumes a state or condition of a salamander or so 
much asbestos to fit it for endurance in great pain of 
everlasting fire, which does not consume, while the 
body is not susceptible of consumption or destruc- 
tion. It places us in a state of inextricable con- 
fusion of mind between material and spiritual life. 
It results in a mental conclusion which is a slan- 
der upon our Creator, and can only be accounted 
for as one of the side steps of retrogression of the 
dark ages. 

There remains, however, something to be said of 
resurrection as a word and as an event, to bring it 
out from the darkness and confusion which appears 
to surround it. The word literally ^to rise again' has 
authority for several different definitions when re- 
ferring to rising again of the dead. It would be re- 
markable if it had not undergone changes of meaning, 
as others have in the course of ages. In the resur- 
rection from the intermediate state, we are to re- 
member that there are two different intermediate 
states, one for the redeemed and another for the 
abode of the lost. For the one there is the resur- 
rection of eternal life, for the other the resurrection 
of damnation. There can be no doubt that to one 
the word means rising higher, to the other not so, 
except it be to a livelier state of consciousness and a 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 79 

stronger sense of the horrors of his situation as he 
comes forth to meet the death to the soul. 

In answer to the supposed necessity for recogni- 
tion, of the resurrection of the body, on the part of 
friends and relatives, we may imagine the confusion 
to follow from knowing persons at different stages of 
their earthly lives, and we are left to speculation as 
to how the old Jewish friends of Elijah would know 
him in the younger semblance of John the Baptist 
and Christian, as Elijah and John the Baptist were 
the same personality. 

It is a safe assertion that no body except that of 
Jesus Christ was ever in the abode of the spirit after 
the departure of the spirit in death; and the miracu- 
lous departure from the law of nature was to prove 
his assertion already mentioned, and to convince his 
disciples of his divinity; the purpose of which we 
can understand when we consider the necessity for 
having these disciples thoroughly grounded in the 
faith, that they might be able to preach it boldly. 
No small significance attaches to the fact that his 
body during his absence from it in the spirit did not 
see corruption, as David prophesied it would not. 
So with Lazarus, it is significant that no decomposi- 
tion had set in, although supposed dead for three 
days, and our Saviour declared that he was not dead. 
His apparent death was evidently a comatose condi- 
tion. So with the daughter of Jarius, Jesus said, 
**The maid is not dead, but sleepeth." 

The widow's son of Nain is another case where no 



80 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

decomposition had time to occur — doubtless a case 
provided to show our Lord's power, as also his com- 
pasions. The remark of his sister, Martha, as to the 
condition of the body of Lazarus was plainly an in- 
ference on her part, based upon the time that had 
elapsed since his apparent death, and probably ex- 
pressed in an entirely different way from which it 
appears. She supposed decomposition had com- 
menced. So with the woman raised by Peter, as well 
as the child raised by Elisha. Much misapprehen- 
sion seems to have arisen from the use of the word 
'resurrection.' 

The association of the word with our Saviour's 
rising in the body has caused many to suppose that 
it is always employed with reference to a rising 
body. That this is an error, our Saviour said, ''I 
am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
Again he says, touching the resurrection of the dead, 
*'Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you 
by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac 
and of Jacob .?" God is not the God of the dead, but 
of the living. 

Prior, or going before this. He says, ''In the 
resurrection they neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven." 
Angels are spirits, Hebrews i :/ and Psalms 104:4, 
and our Saviour said, "A spirit hath not flesh and 
bones as you see me have." 

Referring to that passage found in St. Matthew, 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 81 

which says, ''And the graves were opened and many 
bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out 
of the graves after his resurrection, and went into 
the holy city and appeared unto many," we are 
free to admit that this would be quite convincing to 
many readers of the resurrection of the body, especi- 
ally so to those accustomed to taking a superficial 
view of the scripture ; but careful analysis will show 
the figurative character of this scripture, not doubt- 
ing it is a part of the inspired word, yet the clothing 
of its expression is such perhaps as to cover and dis- 
guise its true meaning. We note first the word 
'appeared' and its close relationship to apparition. 
What is an apparition ? And to what is the term 
applied? Not to bodies of flesh and blood, and not- 
withstanding the word 'bodies' is used, yet upon 
reading, it would carry away the impression of bodies 
of flesh and blood. 

That the saints appeared to persons who knew 
them in life, in a way in which they might be recog- 
nized, and that would be resembling their bodies 
when alive and known to those friends, is not only 
reasonable, but in keeping with the way in which 
angels (spirits) have appeared to men; as also the 
way God, a spirit, appeared to Adam, Abraham, 
Noah and others ; and the way our Saviour appeared 
to the disciples after His death, although he did 
change this order of appearance to them. He did 
again appear to them in the body, evidently to show 
to them that He could do as He had claimed in spcak- 

7 



82 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

ing of His life, ''Lay it down and take it up again." 
He had reference to the life of the body or the 
physical life, and the only way to prove to those 
people that He could take it up again w^as to reappear 
in the bodv, in confirmation of which we have His 
challenge to them to feel His body, that they might 
have proof that it was not a spirit that they had be- 
fore them. The impression made upon the disciples 
by this appearance, that is, that it was a spirit, goes 
to show that they w^ere accustomed to such ap- 
pearances of spirits in bodily form, as in the case of 
Moses and Elias at the Transfiguration. 

It is enough for us to know that these were ap- 
pearances, whether due to optical illusion, as in the 
case of the two disciples on the w^ay to Emmaus, or 
not, we may not know. In this instance the narra- 
tive says, ''Their eyes were holden," "and in conse- 
quence they knew' him not; but afterwards, when at 
supper, in the breaking and blessing of bread, their 
eyes were opened and they knew him." 
J^The language used in regard to the opening of the 
graves is without doubt figurative, for in view of 
what is already show^n, those were spiritual beings 
and not fleshly bodies. The literal opening of the 
graves w^ould not have been necessary to allow the 
exit of spirits, and if it were literally true why do we 
not find some account of the extraordinary phe- 
nomena of these fleshly bodies returning to their 
graves and the graves being refilled? Whatever 
view we take of this, and however we understand it, 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 83 

it promises nothing as to the resurrection of bodies 
generally, which have died in a natural way and 
passed through corruption to disintregration and dis- 
solution. St. Paul says in 2nd Cor. 5:8, ''We are of 
good courage and are willing rather to be absent from 
the body and to be at home with the Lord." 

Recently a Mormon writer, attacking the obsolete 
literature contained in the articles of religion in the 
Episcopal prayer-book, which are vulnerable enough, 
attempts and proves to his own satisfaction, from 
Exodus 33rd, that God is a person of flesh, bone, 
blood and human form. Every one who reads knows 
that the Bible contains many apparent contradic- 
tions, but it would be too great a draft on credulity 
to prove from that chapter that Moses saw anything 
of face, shape or form ; but the contrary, and as to 
the 'back parts' the most reasonable construction is 
that it had reference to the nothingness in sight upon 
the apparent withdrawal of His presence, which 
latter was only apparent, as God is always every- 
where. The Mormon writer in his deduction finds a 
God of human form, flesh and bones sitting in a local 
Heaven, with a similar Jesus Christ sitting at His 
right hand. How can this be, if God is a spirit, and 
our Saviour said, "A spirit hath not flesh and 
bones?" 

The account of the ascension is used to support 
both the idea of a local Heaven and a resurrection of 
the body, but we would ask how could our Saviour 
have appeared to physical eyes or disappear from 



84 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

sight except he assumed a material form, and what 
more natural than that He should in disappearing 
have ascended from the earth as typical of rising to a 
higher life. That the vertical ascent from the earth 
does not establish the fact of a local Heaven is proven 
by the fact that persons so departing after an interval 
of twelve hours would travel in opposite directions. 

It may be urged that our Saviour would not have 
lent himself to the purpose of delusion by optical 
illusion, but he said, indicating concealment, that 
there was much he would not communicate to his 
disciples because they were not able to bear it at 
that time, whether beyond their comprehension we 
know not, but most likely dangerous to the wrecking 
of their weak faith. May not an illusion or a delu- 
sion be justified if to do good or prevent evil? May 
not a man deceive a robber or a murderer to prevent 
the accomplishment of his criminal purpose? Our 
Saviour blighted the fig tree for having no fruit, al- 
though it was not the season of figs, and not through 
resentment, but to convey a lesson both of faith and 
the curse of barrenness in one act. 

*^It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth 
jiothing,'' John 6:63. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 85 



IV 
HEAVEN LOCAL, ETC. 

OUR ideas of the spiritual, or subjects thereto 
pertaining, which lie without the domain of 
our senses, can only be expressed in terms which be- 
long to the domain of our senses, hence the difficulty 
of our understanding much that has come to us by reve- 
lation relating to the spiritual world. It was on this 
account, partly, that our Saviour spoke in parables, 
that things unseen might be brought to the mind by 
analogy in things seen. The kingdom of Heaven — 
which is spiritual — was likened by comparison to 
many material things, not only for the benefit of 
those who heard the words when spoken, but for 
those to whom they were to come during the ages to 
follow. 

The word 'heaven' or 'heavens' having been 
used in more than one sense has probably caused 
some confusion in regard to its meaning. Doubtless 
the etymology of the word will show some relation- 
ship to that which signifies higher altitude, and this 
would account for its use both to express locality 
above the earth and a state of existence higher than 
that earthly life with which all men are acquainted. 
In an effort to convey to the human mind a concept 



86 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

of a higher spiritual life than that known to finite 
man, as the life which awaited the redeemed; and to 
express the idea of the state of those who would re- 
ject salvation and be lost; no terms could be found, 
perhaps, that would be better adapted to the purpose 
than those relative terms, *high and low,' and ^higher 
and lower.' 

Admitted that the life of Heaven is a higher life 
than that of our existence in the world, then it was 
quite reasonable to place Hell, the opposite of 
Heaven, at the extreme in the other direction, and 
consequently lower than the earthly life, which, no 
doubt it is spiritually; these ideas of higher and 
lower in spiritual life assuming a local meaning in 
the ordinary mind. 

Heaven and Hell very naturally found localization 
there, which they have held universally among the 
masses of the people throughout the ages. The 
philosophers, ancient especially, and many of later 
date, held and taught the doctrine of a local Heaven 
very consistently with the views held by them in re- 
gard to the shape of the earth as being flat and sus- 
pended in some mysterious way from its four corn- 
ers, erected upon pillars, stationary, with the sun, 
moon and stars moving around it. To them the 
heaven, or heavens were known as a solid, overhead 
vault, containing the waters, and having windows 
susceptible of opening and closing, that the waters 
might be poured out in rains. Since the Vulgate 
translation, this space has been known as the ^firma- 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 87 

ment,' from the Latin word firmamentum. The 
higher Heaven, or the habitations of God supposed to 
be beyond and above this correspondingly. Hell was 
located as beneath the earth by some, and by others 
at lowest depths within the earth, supposed to be at 
or near the centre of the earth. It is not surprising 
that the ancient monotheist should have held those 
views long after he ceased to be a Jew and became a 
Christian, for an occasional 'lapsus pennae^ or 
voluntary addendum to inspired history or tradition, 
could be found to sustain him. Errors like this refer- 
ence in Genesis to **the waters above the firmament 
and the waters below the firmament," with those 
where references to *'the pillars of the earth and the 
four corners of the earth" (the latter from the 95th 
Psalm) having been changed in King James version 
to read, **the deep places of the earth." 

Our Saviour did not come to earth as a teacher of 
philosophy. His was a much higher calling and 
mission. He came not to make the world wise, in 
matters of science and arts, but to redeem and save 
the world while He sowed the seeds of wisdom unto 
salvation. His frequent allusions and his parables in 
relation to the Kingdom, it seems, should have 
opened the eyes of His hearers and imparted to them 
a correct conception of Heaven, but the grosser idea 
has persistently prevailed. 

Beginning with the words of John the Baptist, 
**The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," every refer- 
ence in the New Testament Scriptures by Jesus 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



Christ, points plainly to a spiritual kingdom. We 
think no Bible scholar can dispute this assertion. 
Not only do the references point to the kingdom of 
Heaven as present among men, but our Saviour uses 
the language, ''It is within man;" again *'My king- 
dom is not of this world." The transition is also 
shown of passing from this life to a higher life 
through death, or from the state of the kingdom of 
Heaven in the body, to the kingdom of God in the 
life everlasting, for which change the w^ord 'resur- 
rection' is generally used — ^ another word, which 
unfortunately has two or three different meanings, 
which result in no small confusion and misunder- 
standing, it having been used to denote the rising of 
our Saviour's body from the grave, and also a rising 
to a higher life. 

Some will ask what is meant by the latter rising? 
To be explicit we will suppose a case: Our Saviour 
said, "In my Father's house are many mansions," 
etc. Evidently these different mansions represents 
the different gradations in spiritual life to which 
men attain, or have attained at certain given periods; 
a man's attainments, probably, depending upon him- 
self, i. e,, his spiritual activities, and the taking or 
receiving a higher place in spiritual life in accord 
therewith. There is strong evidence, from reading 
Revelation on the subject, that there is a confinement 
of the spiritual consciousness to a narrow sphere of 
life, which it occupies until it has, or shall have, ac- 
quired a larger scope of spiritual vision; for instance, 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 89 

*'the spirits in prison," to whom our Saviour 
preached, the * 'prisoners of hope," mentioned by 
Zechariah, etc. Our Saviour spoke continually of 
the **kingdom of Heaven" on earth, referring to the 
Church — not the * visible church,' the 'church in- 
visible.' Do you ask, ''What is that?" For a pur- 
pose, the question is answered thus: 

It is a number of persons in whose souls the Holy 
Ghost or Spirit of God has entered, and by its influ- 
ence taken control or assumed authority. The king- 
dom of God or Heaven, in another sense, is the con- 
tinued sway and influence of that same Holy Ghost 
in the life of man after the death of the body in the 
intermediate state and after judgment in the final 
heaven of the blessed, which must cause an abandon- 
ment of the belief in a local Heaven. Our Saviour 
said, "The kingdom of God is come unto you;" 
again, "The kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
vation, neither shall they say: lo here, or lo there" 
(as much as to say, it is here or it is there), "for be- 
hold the kingdom of God is within you." Again, 
"The kingdom of heaven is at hand," were the words 
of John the Baptist. Again our Saviour said, "The 
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent 
take it by force," indicating how men were capturing 
regeneration by rushing to John's baptism; illustra- 
tions of which we may see in our successful missions 
and revivals. 

Between the kingdoms of heaven there is no differ- 
ence, except that one is the state of the redeemed in 



90 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



this life, the other the state of the redeemed in the 
life to come; and if these be states of conditions they 
cannot be places. Men enter this kingdom of heaven 
in this life when the Holy Ghost enters them; one of 
the mansions at least is here and during the life of 
the body. There is a resurrection, a rising higher at 
some time after the death of the body. The spirit 
may exist for a time in what would resemble in the 
body a comatose condition, a sort of suppressed life 
or a circumscribed life, corresponding to a life of im- 
prisonment, awaiting a time for further resurrection 
to more extended knowledge and increased capacity 
for enjoyment, etc., 

Mankind has been misled by such writers as 
Milton and Dante, who have localized Hell. Heaven 
is the dwelling place or state of God, and our Saviour 
is there with Him. Figuratively, of course, '*He 
sitteth at the right hand of the Father." The re- 
deemed are to be with their Saviour who is with the 
Father. The Father is omnipresent (everywhere) 
then Heaven is not local, but is everywhere, un- 
limited in space and time. Then the redeemed may 
by resurrection become omnipresent, in the course of 
time. So with Hell; inasmuch as it is not a place, 
but state of existence prior to judgment. There 
being in this case, as in that of Heaven, two states to 
answer to Hell, the one the intermediate state men- 
tioned,, and the other the death of the soul after judg- 
ment, and immediately succeeding it. This view of 
Hell is corroborated by the fact that Hell as Gehenna 



OF RE VELA TION AND REASON 91 

(a place near Jerusalem, where dead animals with 
other refuse, were consumed and where fire was kept 
continually burning), represented destruction, and is 
shown elsewhere in the chapter on second death, as in- 
dicative of destruction, except when referred to as 
the intermediate state of the impenitent after the 
bodily death where they await the judgment; a state 
known to Roman Catholics as ^purgatory,' and local- 
ized by them for the convenient purpose of having a 
real fire to burn a material body, that the suffering 
of the victims may appeal to their surviving relatives 
to solicit prayers in their behalf, while the well-con- 
structed theory becomes a perpetual source of in- 
come. A doubt of the utility or effectiveness of 
such prayers, is sustained in the fact, that since if 
these be lost by sin unpardonable, no prayers can 
avail in their behalf. If they have repented and be- 
come the heirs of eternal life, no prayers are needed 
by them ; and to pray that they may repent in the 
intermediate state and be granted eternal life, hav- 
ing died in the body while their souls were dead in 
sin, especially if they had heard the Gospel in this 
life and rejected the salvation offered, seems to be 
going beyond the duty of those whose care while 
here should be for the living, in accord with the 
words of our Saviour when He said, ''Let the dead 
bury their dead." 

Of one fact we are assured, and that is, the 
wicked shall not escape punishment. Scripture 
says this, and that ''the way of the transgressor 



92 CHRISTIAXITY IX THE LIGHT 

is hard," we have daily proof in this life. As 
there are different mansions in Heaven (states or 
conditions of the spirit) so it is reasonable that there 
will be correspondingly different states or conditions 
of the spirits of the wicked. That the wicked suffer 
in this life physical pain from broken law is certain, 
that they suffer anguish of soul from the same cause 
is as sure, and is testified in their self destruction by 
dissipation and suicide. ''Some men's sins are 
open, going before hand unto judgment, while others 
they follow after." That none may underrate the 
punishment of the impenitent, it may be said that 
the length of time in which he shall await judgment 
is not known. 

If speculation on the nature of the punishment 
be warranted and not presumptuous, it appears to 
consist in remorse, in evil and diabolical associa- 
tion, in a fearful contemplation of approaching anni- 
hilation, in regret for spurned offers of salvation; 
or close confinement in a narrow sphere of conscious- 
ness (imprisonment), or possibly in solitary confine- 
ment, which is said to be worse than death. What- 
ever it may be we are assured by its comparison to 
burning the flesh by fire, that it is severe enough to 
desire to escape it, and of sufficiently long duration; 
for who has not had some experience of trouble of 
mind and conscience, which appear almost intoler- 
able, although of short duration? How often has 
sleep forsaken men to despair and death on account 
of troubles produced by temporal affairs 1 Solitary 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 93 

confinement without hope of release must be worse 
than death. 

It seems strange that men who never fail in 
secular duty one day will habitually neglect their 
duty to themselves, in securing the salvation 
offered them through Jesus Christ. Heaven is the 
antithesis of Hell, as eternal life is the antithesis of 
death. The hell of punishment being the state pre- 
ceding judgment, though the hell of death is spoken 
of as a punishment. Heaven as a state of spiritual 
existence is worthy of the best there is in man and in 
that state shall he obtain the acme of his soul's de- 
sire. That those who by resurrection ascend to this 
state, shall not mourn the loss of those who were near 
and perhaps dear to them in this life, is understood 
by those who have learned the difference between the 
love of God and the love which subsists between 
members of a family. As types of love they are 
different. The love of a mother for a child is not 
perhaps a higher order of love than maternal love 
among other animated creatures. It is a part of the 
economy of natural life designed for the protection 
of offspring. This is a love which springs from sel- 
fishness, as does the love for our friends. The love 
towards God and His creatures is founded on obliga- 
tion to Him as our Creator and Redeemer, and as 
the source of our safety and freedom from danger, of 
our comfort and happiness, with all that eternal life 
can yield; in company with our Elder Brother, the 
Christ, and those who will have chosen good in 



94 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

preference to evil. The Christian's happiness will 
be complete, as those who will have chosen evil will 
be no more to him than the fallen angels, though 
they were once of kindred flesh. *'The wages of sin 
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life" — ^here 
that life and death indicate the end of the saved and 
lost, seems as plain, almost as words can express it. 

If the end of the impentitent is death, then it 
settles the matter of a local Hell, since in that case 
the need of such a place is superseded. As we ad- 
vance in love to all of God's creatures — especially 
those of the household of faith — we may measure 
our growth in grace to the profit of our souls. 
Everything herein shows a state or condition of the 
spiritual man brought about by the possession ^of 
eternal life — the life of the Holy Ghost. St. John's 
vision of Heaven is symbolic. The height of its walls, 
three hundred and fifty feet, intended probably to 
represent the security of the redeemed; its dimen- 
sions, their extended sphere of life, knowledge and op- 
portunity for happiness ; its pearl gates the purity of 
those who entered, etc. The new heaven, probably 
the new constituted heaven with its new inhabitants 
after judgment. The new earth refers not to the 
earth, or world probably, but to its inhabitants in a 
new spiritual state, or may refer to another age, as 
mention is made of more than one resurrection, and 
more than one judgment. 

St. John did not see a spiritual heaven, and if he 
had, and had been permitted to describe it, there is 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 95 

no doubt he would have described a state of the soul, 
and that a state of perfect peace and happiness. 
We note that St. Paul did see such, but was not per- 
mitted to speak of it, so St. John's heaven must have 
been symbolic of beauty, peace, rest, safety, se- 
curity, etc. It is reasonable then to conclude that if 
there be no local Heaven (which seems certain) for 
departed spirits, there is no local Hell, the term hav- 
ing two significations, to-wit. : First, the intermediate 
state of the impenitent ; and second, the final death, or 
death of the soul after judgment. Heaven and Hell 
in some of their relations are analogous, in others 
antithetical. Heaven is a final state of the soul; 
Hell, when it signifies death, is final. Heaven, as a 
state of spiritual life signifies the existence of a con- 
scious entity, which under divine power and propul- 
sion developes and increases in comprehensive 
knowlege by an established rule of gradation ; if not 
in paradise, the intermediate the state, after judg- 
ment, until it reaches final mergence into divinity, 
retaining its identity and personality, where its 
home is forever with God, and its interest forever 
identical with His; and so with its employment or 
entertainment, and its happiness, and this is (it 
seems to the writer) eternal life. Hell, as a state of 
the impenitent in the life succeeding the death of the 
body, and prior to judgment, is a state, as we infer, 
of conscious entity narrowed in its sphere of exist- 
ence, where it waits judgment and final extinction. 
This view of Heaven is further corroborated by the 



96 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

first petition of the Lord's Prayer, ''Thy kingdom 
come." This, takea with ''The kingdom of heaven is 
at hand," must be a petition for the presence of 
God's dominion on earth and here among men, 
which can only mean present, in the souls of men, 
to control them spiritually, to make them better, and 
to bring to them peace, good will, etc. 

With the correct view of heaven and hell as 
states of existence and not places, we see at once the 
error of the creed if read to say that "He descended 
into hell." Whether reference be made to the hell of 
the intermediate state or the hell of death, neither 
would be a place where he could go, for he could not 
enter into a state of remorse, he having nothing of 
which to repent. He could, and did enter into a 
state of communion with departed spirits, and 
preached to them ; and it is extremely doubtful if the 
word 'descended' is used correctly, as the simili- 
tude to resurrection was closer than to descent. 
It would be quite enough as the purpose is, to show 
our Saviour's dominion over death, to say that he 
entered the state of the departed, etc. 

The Intermediate State 

It is difficult to account for the loss, on the part of 
many Protestants, of the belief in an intermediate 
state — a state of existence for the dead, where they 
await judgment. The best way to account for this 
is perhaps through the prejudice engendered by rea- 
son of the exploitation of the belief in purgatory for 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 97 

revenue on the part of a mercenary priesthood. It is 
plain that our Saviour, during the interval between 
His death and His resurrection, was cognizant of both 
states of life — that of the righteous, as well as the 
unrighteous. St. Peter says He visited ''the 
spirits in prison" and He promised the thief on the 
cross that he should be with Him in paradise. That 
this was not heaven is shown by His words to Mary 
after the resurrection, saying He had not yet as- 
cended to heaven. Christ was the first-fruits in 
ascension to God, or heaven. He said that no one 
had ascended to heaven prior to the time of his as- 
cension, yet Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were living 
in the spirit, and they must have been in such a state 
of life as is befitting the righteous, known to us as 
paradise. That there is an intermediate state for 
the wicked, is shown by the words used in 2d 
Peter 2:9, ''The Lord knoweth how to deliver 
the godly out of temptation, and to keep the 
unrighteous under punishment unto the day of 
judgment" (Rev. Version); this in regard to men 
and angels, in St. Jude, 6th verse, as follows: 
"And angels that kept not their own principality, 
but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in ever- 
lasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of 
the great day." Again in St. John's Gospel, 
3:13, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, 
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son 
of man which is in heaven." Jesus had been to 
paradise as he said with the thief on the cross, as 



98 • CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

also in the lower parts of the earth (hell), not death 
the final hell (Eph. 4:9). That this was a state of 
life of some activity, is shown by the fact of our 
Saviour's preaching to the spirits. His power over 
life and death probably enabled him to be in touch 
with both states of existence, or worlds, if we choose 
to so express it. Again in 2d St. Peter 2:24, ''For 
if God spread not angels who sinned, but cast them 
down to Tartarus [Greek for hell of angels] and com- 
mitted them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto 
judgment," etc. All of which, without any argu- 
ment to the contrary, makes the certainty of an in- 
termediate state conclusive. 

St. Paul refers to the intermediate state when he 
says: ''We shall not all sleep," that is go into that 
state which follows the death of the body (ist 
Corinthians 15:51), but "we shall be changed," etc., 
the reference being to the dead and living at the 
second coming of the Saviour. 

We are in a state of consciousness while we sleep, 
as evidenced by our dreams ; hence that may be a 
pleasant sleep of peace and happiness to some, while 
to the lost, a sleep of painful anxiety and bitter 
anguish. For further reference to this sleep, see 
1st Thess. 4:13; Job 7:21 ; and Daniel 12:2. 

The spirits to whom our Saviour preached were in 
an intermediate state inasmuch as he said he had 
not, at that time, ascended to his Father, who as a 
matter of fact is in heaven. 

It seems strange that any should doubt the au- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 99 

thority for the intermediate state in Scripture, as 
there are so many reference to it. In several cases 
it is referred to as a sleep: ''Those who are alive shall 
not go before those who are asleep," used in regard 
to meeting the Saviour at his coming. 

The intermediate state of existence, the life of the 
soul after the death of the body, and preceding judg- 
ment, being a somnolent state, this somnolence (re- 
semblance to sleep) being due to suspended ac- 
tivities, or partially suspended activities of the soul 
— for we feel sure the evil acts of the wicked will be 
suspended as against the good — is referred to by 
Scripture, both Old and New, as a sleep. St. Paul 
calls it such in writing to the Corinthians as also to 
the Thessalonians ; while Job refers to it as such in 
chapter 7:21 ; and Daniel in 12:2. In natural sleep 
our consciousness is ever present, as evidenced by 
dreams, and it is a reasonable inference that dreams 
never cease, but only those thoughts occurring near 
to our waking moments are retained with those of 
peculiarly exciting or startling character. The 
parable of Dives and Lazarus tells us what the- 
nature of that sleep is as to the difference in the 
states of the redeemed and the lost. This is a para- 
ble and cannot be construed literally. If flesh and 
blood cannot, as St. Paul says, inherit the kingdom 
of heaven, we may conclude it will not be conveyed 
to hell. Besides this, it would scarcely appear 
possible that a man could rest in the bosom of an- 
other in a physical sense. One plainly taught 



100 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

lesson, however, we have from the parable, and 
that is, whatever may be said of its resemblance 
to sleep, this intermediate life of the soul is one of 
the mansions of heaven to the redeemed, while it is a 
state of terrific horror and remorseful suffering to the 
damned. The 6th chapter of the Gospel of John 
and 39th verse is, ''And this is the will of Him that 
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and 
believeth on Him, may have everlasting life, and I 
will raise him at the last day." The words, 'the 
last day,' are used in this connection four times in 
this chapter, showing that the resurrection is to be 
postponed to the last day. We may not know at 
what time to place the last day, but we conclude 
that what is said indicates an interval, perhaps of 
long duration to some, between the first death, that 
of the body, and the resurrection to judgment. 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 101 



V 

ELECTION 

TIME was, and it continued for ages, as we know, 
in the history of the human race, when very few 
had any realization of or knew anything of God. The 
doctrine of Election was applicable at that time in a 
certain way; but not then in a way to indicate any 
special preference God might have had for any man 
to change Him from His character as the Omnip- 
otent, who is not a respector of persons. He made 
certain calls for men, as for a certain nation, for 
His own use and purpose. He hardened Pharaoh's 
heart, but that was better for Pharaoh than if the 
latter had hardened his own heart. Pharaoh probably 
repented when the scales were removed from his 
eyes, and there is little doubt that he was the bene- 
ficiary of God's mercy, or will be in time. 

It is my duty to withhold no argument, or quota- 
tion, that may be found to strengthen the side of 
this question, to which I am by conscience opposed; 
hence I give here quotations used to support those 
who oppose my views in regard to this particular 
doctrine. I must confess that I am surprised on 
investigation, though very agreeably, to find the 
greater part of them so weak. 



102 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

The word ''Elect' is used without any intimation of 
classification or distinction between the elect and 
non-elect (and note here there is nothing anywhere 
said of the non-elect — i. e,, the Scripture nowhere 
says anything like this, while the Elect shall be 
saved, those whom God hath not chosen for the pur- 
pose shall be damned). This would be plain lan- 
guage, but if true I know not why Scripture might 
not contain it or words of like import. It seems 
probable that the doctrine of Election, as defined by 
those who are its strongest votaries, and who con- 
sider themselves its beneficiaries, is the product of 
human thought. 

The main cause of error in the matter of Election 
arose from the use of the word under both the old and 
the new dispensations, where a correct understanding 
would have required the use of different words. The 
word came into use to designate such as were called 
to the knowledge and service of God, as Abraham 
and the other patriarches and prophets, etc., prior 
to the time of Christ, after w^hich time all men were 
called at the 'lifting up' of Christ upon the cross, 
when, as he said, ''I will draw all men unto me;" 
verified further on the day of Pentecost, and again 
when the sheet was let down for Peter and he w^as 
commanded to preach the Gospel to all mankind. 
The word was misapplied afterwards to those who 
should not have been called the elect, but who 
themselves had elected ; not those who were chosen 
but who had chosen; the power being with the indi- 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 103 

vidual to accept or reject, to seek after, or to turn 
away from God. The word is used in ist Timothy 
5:21, and applied to angels, evidently to designate 
those who have not fallen, and who have not by their 
acts forfeited the favor of God ; as Satan, the father 
of lies, has, who is reserved in punishment unto judg- 
ment, the prototpye of all his followers in conduct 
and in ultimate destiny. 

The call to salvation is made to all men, ist 
Timothy 4:10, also ist John 2:2, and 2nd Peter 3:9. 
The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance. 

For a repudiation of Calvinism the reader is re- 
ferred to that of a Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. 
Dr. Samuel T. Carter, of Rhode Island, and his ex- 
honoration by his presbytery; requesting him to con- 
tinue his honored connection with the Presbyterian 
communion, notwithstanding the doctrine of Election 
as held by his church. 

That the day of Election is passed is confirmed by 
the language used in relation to John's baptism: 
**And from the days of John the Baptist the King- 
dom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent 
take it by force." 

The word * foreordained' is used once only in 
Scripture, as found where it relates to our Savicur 
in the Epistle of St. Peter. 

'Predestinate' is used three times by St. Paul, and 
allowing the word all the force of predestination, it 
neither testifies to the partiality of God nor the de- 



104 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

struction of man's free agency. Granting man's free 
will, it was predetermined that in case he should do 
his duty, perform his part to entitle him to it, he 
should inherit the blessing of everlasting life. And 
Election, except in special calls for certain purposes, 
is to be construed in the same way. The ancient 
and almost obselete doctrine of Election seems to 
have become res adjudicata^ in matter of opposition 
to it with the Episcopalians by common consent, al- 
though the strong language of the 17th article of Re- 
ligion remains and will remain possibly for years in 
the prayer book, concurrently with the doctrine of 
corporeal and endless punishment by material fire as 
held and believed by many Christians. 

Recalling the words of St. Paul in his letter to the 
Hebrews, *' Furthermore we have had fathers of our 
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them rever- 
ence, shall we not much rather be in subjection 
unto the Father of spirits and live.?" we are forced 
to find reconciliation between God's omnipotent 
power over man and man's responsibility for his own 
acts. Repeating the self-evident truths, God . is 
Love, God is no respector of persons, and man is a 
free agent to act for good or evil, as he may choose; 
we are forced, nolens volens, to the conclusion that, 
when God determined to create man, it was His pur- 
pose to endow him with a power of choice and dis- 
crimination between good and evil, the power pre- 
viously conferred upon angels, but not given to any 
mundane creature except man; there was, as it 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 105 

seems, a parting with something which He could not 
consistent with the Divine economy recall; a power 
of choice embedded deeply as a foundation principle 
in the conscience of man never to be eradicated, 
which can never be hidden and can never be lost ; from 
which he may not escape, though he flee to the utter- 
most part of the earth or bury himself in the depths 
of the sea. 

Man possesses many emotions productive of many 
capabilities and susceptibilities by reason of his like- 
ness to God, he having been made in the image of 
God, which differentiates him and the lower orders 
of God's creation; but this power of choice between 
obedience and disobedience dominates all in impor- 
tance, and the power of discrimination, during sanity, 
between good and evil, though often befogged or be- 
clouded by his own acts, is never utterly lost. 

As cited elsewhere with regard to the Jews, the 
time was when certain persons or classes were not 
included in the call. A veil was over their eyes and 
they were not permitted to see. Mark, if you will, 
the strength of the language used here, which the 
reader may think destructive of my argument; and 
yet, admitting the fact that some were permitted to 
hear while others were not, it does not follow that 
this was to act as a 'perpetual injunction' — to use 
a law phrase — nor does it imply that the rejected 
had not previously scorned the light offered to them. 

God's ways to man are ever and always to be jus- 
tified. True loyalty demands this admission alike 



106 CHRISTIANITY IX THE LIGHT 

from you and me — we need not resort to the in- 
spired record for this, but we find it in the logic of 
the uninspired, as that of Pope, for instance: "If no 
sparrow falls to the ground without His care, has 
He not declared that a man is of much greater value 
than many sparrows?" If more valuable, then, 
w^herein does the value consist, except it be in His 
capability of receiving eternal life, of which the 
sparrow is not capable. If the justification of the 
ways of God to His creatures be not a theme worthy 
of the championship of the best and bravest of those 
creatures, then this writer knows no worthy theme; 
and although some of our long-cherished theories 
suffer destruction, yet the iconoclasm must proceed; 
the doctrine of man's free agency is further vindi- 
cated outside the pale of inspiration. 

Man's philosophies and psychology are alike 
founded upon it — Revelation recognizes it. With- 
out the ability to choose between right and wrong, 
remorse would be unknown. ]\Ian in such a 
state could not receive the Gospel any more 
than a man can save himself. This is made 
plain by the words of our Saviour in answer 
to the question why He spoke in parables (]\Iatt. 
13:10): ''Lest they might see, hear and understand 
and be saved or healed." It seems plainly and 
clearly shown here that at that time they were not to 
be offered salvation. The fact that a man cannot 
save himself has given rise to some confusion on the 
subject of man's freedom of will, but each fact is 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 107 

consistent with the other, and neither may supersede 
the other. While a man may not save himself, he 
may and must put himself in the way of and accept 
a salvation offered by and through another. 

By misapprehension have the words ^Election' and 
^Predestination' been construed in a sense like that of 
foreordination, as applied to the Christ in ist Peter 
1 :20. In no place can election or predestination, 
which may be applied to the call of Abraham, and all 
the way down through the ages to the call of the dis- 
ciples, and coming onward with the human race, be 
so construed. At one time or place it is synonymous 
with conversion or regeneration; again, with the call 
of the Gospel and man's receptive response. At one 
place it applied to those whose eyes were opened and 
ears unstopped, whose understanding was made re- 
ceptive, while others were not allowed to see for the 
time being. 

Deprive mankind of freedom of action between 
right and wrong, and the most important words of 
any vocabulary would be forever lost. These terms 
would themselves perish with duty, reward, punish- 
ment, guilt, merit, blame, crime and even sin itself. 
This is a logical conclusion, but if we appeal to in- 
spiration, where can we find a simple truth expressed 
in plainer and yet more cogent terms than by St. 
Paul, when he says in the 12th chapter, 9th and loth 
verses, to the Hebrews, **We have had fathers of our 
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them rever- 
ence; shall we not much more be in subjection unto 



lOS CHRISTIANITY IX THE LIGHT 

the Father of spirits and live?" Which implies 
that we are quite as able to obey the one as the 
other. However we may desire to avoid dog- 
matism, we are forced to vindicate the claims of cer- 
tain great and fundamental truths, such as the love 
of God, the sacred and divine nature of Truth, God's 
wisdom, etc., then God's justice and man's free 
agency must take their places, both by reason and 
revelation among the axiomatic. As established 
truth, these must hold their dominating positions in 
all exegesis, and w^hile truth presses onward in its 
contest with error, like an avalanche slow^ly but sure- 
ly overcoming the obstacles which stand in its way 
for progress, so must these last named truths over- 
come every obstacle that may be in their pathway. 
If these be true, then every conflicting thought must 
utterly perish and be ultimately lost to the minds of 
men. Confusion of ideas grows from confusion of 
terms, and confusion of meaning as attached to terms 
and words. Confusion of terms also have their effect 
upon the understanding. God has not dealt with all 
peoples or wdth different individuals alike; neither 
has his dealings towards any been the same at all 
times. Our Savior did not select every man he met 
as a disciple, nor was it intended that all should be 
at that time beneficiaries of the Gospel. 

While it is true the language of Scripture often 
gives warrant for the belief in Election, yet it does 
not justify the conclusions of the extremists in their 
radical views of that doctrine. The call of our 



OF RE VELA TION AND REASON 109 

Saviour to his disciples, He says, ''Ye have not 
chosen me, but I have chosen you," etc., applies to 
the particular calling for which he had chosen them. 
Such calling or election of men for certain purposes 
v^ill ever be as it has ever been, as the choice of a 
Joseph, a Moses or a Samuel, as a blessing and that 
of a Pharaoh or an Attila as a scourge. The former 
having first chosen that which was good, and the 
latter being willing instruments perhaps for evil. 

Standing in the category with the doctrine of End- 
less Punishment, both have sufficient scriptural back- 
ing through construction and application to warrant 
selfish human desire or depravity. 

It is true that we have fi-om St. Paul the words of 
God to Moses, '*I will have mercy on whom I will 
have mercy" etc., and of Pharaoh, ^'Therefore hath 
He mercy on whom He will and whom He will He 
hardeneth." 

In ancient times God chose individuals as He 
chose a certain nation for His special favor, and we 
are told that at the same time He winked at sin, but 
this was all changed when John the Baptist called all 
men to repentance, announcing, '*The Kingdom of 
Heaven is at hand." Prior to this time a select few 
only could come. The vast outside multitude knew 
nothing of God. This makes the coming of Christ 
with that of John the Baptist the greatest epoch in 
the history of the world, and so far as we know in the 
history of affairs spiritual, which may extend beyond 
this world. 



110 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Both the preponderance of Revelation and Logic 
are on the side against Election and Predestination 
as supposed to contradict that Scripture which de- 
clares that God is not willing that one should perish, 
etc. The Scripture language which has led men to a 
belief in Predestination and Election, as applied to the 
soul's salvation, is sufficiently impressive, if taken 
without qualification and without a correct concep- 
tion of divine justice, to justify the extreme ground 
held by some of its advocates. In every case, how- 
ever, this language is qualified in its application to per- 
sons, or time or classes, or it is outweighed by state- 
ments as plain as can be made. 

Foreknowledge on the part of the Creator of the 
coming act of His creature does not necessitate 
coercion or compulsion on the part of the Creator to- 
ward the creature, in the direction of evil or trans- 
gression of law, enacted for the welfare of the crea- 
ture. We must recall here what has been said of the 
Sabbath may be applied to the remaining nine of the 
commandments, to wit : Man was not made for these 
laws, but they were made for man. 

We find the word 'election' used in a great many 
places in the Bible, but in no case perhaps to justify 
the extreme Calvinistic view of it. In one case, to 
quote, we have, ''Whom He predestinated He called, 
and whom He called He justified, and whom He 
justified He glorified," of which nothing is inconsist- 
ent with man's free agency. It is true God made 
special gifts of grace to some in early life, but it was 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 111 

always reasonable that nothing in this way has been 
forced upon unwilling souls. Some of the descend- 
ents of Scotch-Irish parentage in America seem to 
have held with the greatest tenacity to the extreme 
view of election due to their unbending nature, which 
in some respects has proven of great value to the 
human race ; in such matters as their innate love of 
justice, and other strong virtues for which they have 
stood solidly. We are forced to a recognition of this 
fact when we contemplate the intolerable condition 
of society where law is unknown. The stubborn na- 
ture of the element mentioned appears to have 
cropped out in a way to exhibit their Christian spirit 
to a disadvantage in the trouble which has sprung up 
between the two branches of the Presbyterian faith 
in regard to their union. The Cumberland Presby- 
terians, it is reported, had obtained some concessions 
from those of the Old School relating to the doctrine 
of Election, which they, the Cumberlands, desired to 
put on record, and have emphasized, by making the 
change in the confession of faith ; but which was 
negatived by the Old School on the ground that such 
action would be of the nature of an apology. These 
people will probably be among the last to admit that 
the science of religion is progressive. 



112 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



VI 

ANGELS 

THE many popular errors which prevail in regard 
to Angels make it necessary, if only for truth's 
sake, to devote some space to the subject. Men will 
never be or become angels. Angels have at no time 
been men, although they appeared as men. What we 
know in regard to them comes to us through revela- 
tion, and is sufficiently plain to establish the fact that 
they constitute a different order of beings from that 
of men. They are neither men nor Gods. 

The writer recalls a case of absolute distress 
brought upon a girl upon being informed that she 
would not be an angel in the future life. Why will 
adult people propagate or encourage such errors, if 
not done in ignorance of the facts? 

Distinct from God and man, yet they are spirits, 
says Heb. 1:7, taken from Psalm 104:4. It may be 
well to be reminded here that *' A spirit hath not 
flesh and bones," the language of our Saviour as 
found in St. Luke 24:39. Bearing this truth in 
mind, with the further fact as shown by Scripture, 
that the angels, those who (or that) have not fallen 
from their first estate by reason of sin, have their 
habitation near God in the universe. God being 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 113 

everywhere, we cannot say that His angels are not 
ubiquitous. 

If the foregoing be true as facts, and they seem in- 
disputable, then whenever angels have appeared to 
men in human form it is safe to say that such an ap- 
pearance was in fact only an appearance, or, more 
explicitly, an apparition. This view, which the 
reader is asked to observe attentively, will remove 
from the mind many difficulties and much confusion 
in relation to the appearance of spirits to mankind, 
whether divine, angehc or diabolic — whether we read 
of the appearance of an angel or of God the Father, 
the Son or the Holy Ghost, or of Moses and Elias, 
or of evil spirits, or of the spirits of men who have 
departed this life ; there seems to be but one ra- 
tional and satisfactory view to take of them, and that 
is to class them among apparitions, not forgetting 
that an apparition can be a reality in the domain of 
spirituahty, as for instance the appearance of the 
spirit of God as a dove at the baptism of our Saviour, 
while in other cases it may be a figment of the imagi- 
nation to a disordered consciousness, as in cases of 
madness. The last is most forcibly demonstrated in 
mania a potu, also in other cases of delirium. Angels 
are capable of sin. They are evidently endowed 
with some, if not all the nobler attributes of men, 
such as love, sympathy, etc. Their immortality, as in 
the case of mankind, has been settled by their own 
choice between good and evil, obedience and diso- 
bedience. The devil (a fallen angel) and his com- 
9 



114 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

panions having chosen evil have become subject to 
death. (See quotations). 

What may differentiate angels and spirits of men 
in the future life can be only a matter of conjecture 
to finite mind, but that they will be of distinct nature 
is to be inferred, and that men are to occupy a higher 
sphere relatively, is deducible from revelation — as 
we are told that men are to judge angels. 

Another important point, which shows differentia- 
tion, is in the designation of the abode of wicked 
angels where they await judgement, mentioned in 
2nd Peter, 2:4. In this case the word 'Tartaroo,* 
used for hell is not found elsewhere in the Scripture. 
This was not the same place or state as that visited 
by our Saviour between the time of his crucifixion 
and resurrection, and where it is said He preached 
to the spirits, as mentioned in the Epistle of St. 
Peter, different words being used; ^prison,' in this 
case, to designate the narrow state of consciousness. 

A certain eminent writer in his admirable work 
doubtless makes an error in his claims that this visit 
was made, and the preaching was to the spirits of 
angels, as in another case when he says the daugh- 
ters of the Adamic race married angels. A further 
proof that men and angels are of a different nature 
is found in Heb. 2:16, where it is said of our Saviour, 
**He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the 
seed of Abraham, that being like His brethren. He 
might be merciful," etc. Angels being spirits, it ap- 
pears that the word has sometimes been mistrans- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 115 

lated in Scripture for spirit, and in either case to 
designate something of spiritual nature. 

The incidents related in the 6th chapter of Judges 
seem to confirm the truth of the first proposition,, 
where the appearance seems to be the 'spirit of God* 
at one time and is called the 'angel of the Lord' in 
other places. That the word is used to indicate 
something of the divine character appears from the 
use of it to describe the nature of the manna given to 
support the children of Israel in the wilderness. 

Angels have been sent as guides for men and mes- 
sengers to men. Their sympathy is enlisted in be- 
half of men, as shown in many scriptural references. 
They are supposed, and the inference is justified by- 
Scripture, to be guardians for the welfare of good 
men, and so appointed by God. This guardian- 
ship of innocent children seems to be established by 
St. Matthew in chapter i8, verse lo, where our 
Saviour declares, ''In heaven their angels always be- 
hold the face of my Father which is in heaven," 
which furnishes an argument against a local Heaven. 
Since God as a spirit occupies all space, those fav- 
ored spirits must be ever with him, and Hkewise 
ubiquitous. As spirits, angels, being capable of sin, 
"kept not their places," i. c, disobeyed the laws and 
"were cast down to hell to be kept there in chains of 
darkness to be reserved until judgement." It is said 
Jesus Christ was made lower than the angels. This 
has not reference to his nature, but was temporary 
and has reference to temporary conditions, in suffer- 



116 CHRISTIAXITY IX THE LIGHT 

ing and death, to which good and hoh' angels are 
never to be subjected. Their sympathy for men is 
shown by what is said of them by St, Luke, who de- 
clares, ''There is joy in the presence of angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth." That they have a 
laudable curiosit}' in regard to the welfare of man is 
evident, since in His first Epistle, speaking of the part 
of Jesus Christ in the salvation of men, St. Peter says, 
''Which things the angels desire to look into." 

Our reasonable conclusion or summar}' of knowl- 
edge with reference to angels, is that they are 
.spiritual beings, creatures of God, made when we 
inow not, for His glor\^, may we say companionship? 
^vith certain of God's attributes, not perfect but liable 
to sin, and possibly subject to death after judgement, 
if in the same attitude as men who having been 
guilty of the unpardonable sin are in an attitude of 
antagonism toward God, which is a state of death to 
.all souls. 

"O everlasting God, who hast ordained and 
constituted the ser\'ices of angels and men in a 
wonderful order : mercifully granting that as Thy holy 
angels always do Thee service in heaven ; so by Thy 
appointment they may succour and defend us on 
.earth through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen. 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 117 



VII 

JEWS 

IN introducing the Jewish people into this work, it 
may be sufficient to say that the history of this peo- 
ple is so closely and intimately connected with Chris- 
tianit}^ that a discussion of either would be very in- 
complete without mention being made of the other. 
To discuss Christianity and ignore the Jews, would be 
as the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. A cor- 
rect conception of the Jews, as such, must recognize 
this very interesting people as but a remnant of what 
was once the most celebrated nation the world had 
ever known. However the Jews are contemplated, 
considered, or discussed, in every phase of life, of his- 
tory or of peculiarity, interest never ceases. Won- 
derful and remarkable from every point of view, as 
unmixed with others, they came from the very hand 
of the Creator a dominent human factor, destined to 
impart to the stream of common humanity a hue and 
color that was to be forever indelible in monotheistic 
religion. Great in energy, great in vitality, great in- 
tellectually, great in tenacity, great in nervous force, 
great in every resource that makes for achievement 
in temporalities, he is everywhere and always in evi- 
dence where the commercial tide rises to its greatest 



118 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

height, and where the contending waves of hfe's sea 
of business meet and clash with loudest roar and 
fiercest fury. Here he seems to be in his glory, his 
^oul feasts, as it were, upon the excitement incident 
to commercial venture. We find him not only in 
great centers a prominent and conspicuous figure, 
but it may be in the retired nook or corner on a 
back street, giving strictest attention to the most 
minute details of a business however narrow and 
hmited it may be. 

As being among nations a special favorite of the 
Great Jehovah, theirs was a peculiar and unique posi- 
tion in past history, not more so in the past, however, 
than they have continued to be a peculiar and won- 
derful people through all ages ; in maintaining their 
identity and distinctness while they have been scat- 
tered among all the nations of the earth, declining 
assimilation and resisting absorption. It seems that 
the purpose of their Great Jehovah of keeping them 
distinct, through His law against intermarriage with 
other nations, is being accomplished by circumstances 
which could not be enforced by the most strenuous 
laws that man could enact. 

Christianity needs no stronger advocate than Jew- 
ish history. The fulfillment of prophesy in regard to 
the Jews, taken in connection with the words of 
Christ himself, a typical Jew, are sufficient to prove 
the truth of history, as we have received it from the 
writers of the four gospels, as well as their own his- 
torian, Josephus ; and at the same time their customs, 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 119 

habits and observances prove the truth of the Old 
Testament. Intolerance of adverse religious opinion 
seems to have been through all ages of history a 
predominant trait of humanity. To this rule, strange- 
ly enough — I say it as a Christian — the Christians who 
should have furnished an exception have most strictly 
adhered. 

The cohesiveness of the Jews, the result of his per- 
secution in the past, is to him a cooperative business 
bond, which renders him, in a manner, invincible in 
the commercial field. Wherever he goes he controls 
this field as soon as he can call around him a number 
of his confederates sufficient to do so by cooperation, 
for cooperation is certain as a factor. While it is 
true that there seems to be, as is charged, a concen- 
tration on the part of the Jew of all his powers and 
faculties upon temporal achievement, yet who has a 
window in his spiritual breast where lie exposed to 
public gaze the secret thoughts or hopes or prayers 
that constitute the inner and spiritual life. 

There is no effect without a cause, and effects are 
often seen in the present which must find their cause 
in the remote past. The persecution of the Jew, or, 
to put it more mildly, the unfair treatment he has re- 
ceived at the hands of those with whom his lot has 
been caiit, has caused him to engage in commercial 
pursuits (the most lucrative) as thereby his effects 
have been kept in a portable shape, while a social 
isolation from those with whose advanced civilization 
he is always in accord has caused him to concentrate 



120 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

his energies upon the acquirement of wealth. These 
facts with their results exonorate him from the charge 
of inordinate greed, as well as the charge of selfish- 
ness. The history of the Jews is one of repeated 
persecution at the hands of other nations from the 
time of the first carrying away to Babylon ; such per- 
secution, in the way of pillage, robbery and murder, 
as none but a very virile race could have withstood. 
The most heartrending of these occurred in Spain 
during the fifteenth century, during the reign ot 
Ferdinand and Isabella, those monarchs who have 
the credit of America's discovery through Columbus, 
as told in the Columbian cyclopedia, as follows : 

**The fate of the Jews in Spain during the fifteenth 
century beggars description. Persecution, violent 
conversion, massacre, the tortures of the inquisition — 
we read of nothing but these ! Thousands were 
burned alive. In Seville alone two hundred and 
eighty were burned in one year. Sometimes the 
Popes and even the nobles shuddered at the fiend- 
ish zeal of the inquisitors, and tried to mitigate 
it, but in vain. At length the hour of final horror 
came. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella issued an 
edict for the expulsion within four months of all who 
refused to become Christians, with the strict in- 
hibition to take neither gold nor silver out of the 
country. The Jews offered an enormous sum for its 
revocation, and for a moment the sovereigns hesi- 
tated, but Torquemada, the inquisitor general, dared 
to compare his royal master and mistress to Judas. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 121 

They shrank from the awful accusation, and the ruin 
of the most industrious, the most thriving, the most 
peacable, and the most learned of their subjects, and 
consequently of Spain herself, became irremediable. 
This was perhaps the grandest and most melancholy 
hour in their modern history. It is considered by 
themselves as great a calamity as the destruction of 
Jerusalem. Three hundred thousand, some make the 
number greater, resolved to abandon the country 
which a residence of seven centuries had made al- 
most a second Judea to them. The incidents of their 
departure are heartrending. Almost every land was 
shut against them. Some, however, ventured into 
France, others into Italy, Turkey, Morocco, in the 
last of which country they suffered the most frightful 
privations. Of the eighty thousand who obtained an 
entrance into Portugal on the payment of eight gold 
pennies a head, only for eight months, to enable them 
to obtain means of departure into other countries, 
many lingered after the expiration of the time and 
were sold into slavery. In 1495, King Emanuel of 
Portugal commanded them to quit his territories, and 
at the same time ordered that all Jewish children 
under fourteen years of age should be taken from 
their mothers, retained and brought up as Christians. 
Agony drove their mothers to madness, they de- 
stroyed their children, throwing them into wells and 
rivers, to prevent their falling into the hands of their 
persecutors. 

This account says, *'an enormous sum was offered 



122 CHRISTIANITY IX THE LIGHT 

for the revocation of the order of banishment." 
The impossibihty of secrecy alone stood in the 
way of an agreement to this proposition, one, how- 
ever venal might have been its acceptance, which 
would have carried with it no guarantee against 
similar demands, even from those then in power, and 
certainly none from future kings and queens ; yet 
might have been fraught with less privation and 
suffering than these unfortunate and oppressed peo- 
ple were forced to endure. The fact that it could 
not be done in a corner being the only preventive of 
the consummation of the agreement shows the con- 
scientious value of religious intollerance. This case 
IS given as one of the most striking instances of per- 
secution visited upon the Jews. There have been 
others innumerable and some of the worst by Turks 
and other unchristian nations as well as the Christian. 
In view of the facts, who is so obtuse as not to see 
that the persecution to which the Jevv's have been 
subjected, on account of their religion, has been due 
to ignorance or malevolence ; to which source all re- 
ligious persecution may be traced? Of Christians, the 
most intolerant and bigorted are those who are nomi- 
nal Christians only. True Christians cannot be in- 
tolerant. As the smooth-tongued hypocrite can find 
no connection so desirable as the church organization 
for his nefarious purposes, by the same rule of ap- 
parent incongruity the most intolerant bigot and 
bitterest partisan in behalf of his own sect, denomi- 
nation or church, as he or others may choose to call 



OF RE A SON A ND RE VELA TION 123 

it, is most certainly unknown to Jesus Christ as a 
member of the Church Invisible ; while some regener- 
ate persons are warped by ignorance and prejudice. 

This bit of history is related here not for the love 
of the horrible or to excite resentment, but for the 
benefit of those who may think the Jew clannish and 
selfish, that they may know something of his justi- 
fication for adhesion to his own people and sympa- 
thy for his own. It is hoped that the purpose of 
bringing him into this book, which is not that of 
simply 'writing him up' for the sake of the story, will 
be its own vindication. That the Jews were respon- 
sible for the crucifixion of Christ there can be no 
doubt, however much some have labored to disprove 
it, and this is only said because it is made necessary 
to say it by reason of a growing ' fad' of a claim to the 
contrary. A certain writer for the American Israelite 
denies the responsibility of the Jews for the crucifixion 
of Jesus Christ and quotes from Matthew to sustain 
Jiis contention. If the gospel writers are to be ac- 
cepted as authority, nothing more is asked than that 
their account be read by anyone who may desire in- 
formation on the subject. Although Pilate was 
forced to pass sentence by a mob and the execution 
was effected by the same persons, yet it was a Jewish 
mob, as such a mob acting in Springfield, Illinois, 
would be called an Illinois mob or in Atlanta, 
Georgia, would be called a mob of Georgians. How- 
ever, granting this truth, no blame can be attached to 
the individual Jew for it, any more than an individual 



124 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Southern man could be blamed for the institution of 
African slavery. Yea ! more than this, the Jews who 
engaged in it, like Saul of Tarsus in his persecution 
of the Christians, doubtless thought they were doing 
God's service in behalf of their religion. The Christ 
had appeared among them in a way so unexpected to 
them that they could not believe Him to be what He 
claimed to be. This, not without exception, for 
many did accept Him. There were many Jewish 
converts in the early Christian Church. 

However it all may be, it is not the special pro- 
vince of the writer to pass judgement in this matter. 
Who to-day thinks of holding the Egyptians respon- 
sible for the cruel bondage and detention of the 
Israelites in their country, and hard did we think our 
fate if we were to be persecuted for our national 
crimes; for instance, the crimes of our forefathers in 
their cruelties to the aborigines in making them 
drunk and robbing them of their lands; or would it 
be fair for us to think it our duty to persecute a 
brother from Connecticut who might come to find a 
home with us because his New England ancestors had 
engaged in the African slave trade. But the most 
important matter connected with Jews and Jewish 
history, with which this book has to do, and to all 
which has gone before is preliminary, is the prophe- 
cies in regard to him and their fulfillment in their re- 
lation to the Christian economy. Prophecy and 
promises in relation to the Jews afford proof so posi-^ 
tive that a time and an opportunity is to be granted 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 125 

them in a future life for repentance and salvation 
that, with an apology to those who disagree with the 
writer, it does seem that none but a fool could err 
therein. The Jews having been God's chosen (elect) 
people are still his chosen people, and as such no na- 
tion that lays the hand of persecution upon them 
will fail to suffer for it. (See Jeremiah 30:20). Have 
the Jews incurred God's disfavor? Certainly (vide 
prophets), but temporarily. Note the prophecy ol 
Esaias (or Isaiah) found in the 6th chapter and loth 
verse, '' Make the heart of this people fat and their 
ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their 
eyes and hear with their ears and understand with 
their hearts and convert and be healed." This lan- 
guage was uttered 758 years (according to Usher's 
chronology) before the birth of Christ, showing 
at that time the Jews by their waywardness had 
forfeited temporarily, if you please, the favor ot 
God. Afterwards (See 13 th chapter of St. Mat- 
thew, lOth verse) ''The disciples come and said unto 
him (the Messiah) 'Why speaketh thou unto them in 
parables?'" He answered and said unto them, 
*' Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries 
of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not 
given, for whosoever hath to him shall be given and 
he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath 
not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 
Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they 
seeing see not and hearing hear not and neither do 
they understand, and in them is fulfilled the pn^phecy 



126 CHRISTIANITY IX THE LIGHT 

of Esaias, which saith 'By hearing ye shall hear and 
shall not understand and seeing ye shall not per- 
ceive, for this people's heart is waxed gross and their 
ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have 
closed lest at any time they shall see with their eyes 
and hear with their ears and understand with their 
hearts and should be converted and I should heal 
them, but blessed are your eyes for they see and 
your ears for they hear.' " 

Some years afterward when St. Paul was brought 
to Rome as a prisoner for trial, the Jews of Rome 
visited him in prison. He preached the gospel to 
them and he sa}'s some believed, but doubtless the 
greater number rejected it, for he said, ''Well spake 
the Holy Ghost of Esaias, the prophet unto our 
fathers (Paul was a Jew), saying, 'Go unto this peo- 
ple and say Hearing ye shall hear and shall not un- 
derstand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive, 
for the heart of this people is waxed gross and their 
ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have 
closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear 
with their eais and understand with their hearts and 
should be converted and I should heal them.' Be it 
known therefore unto vou that the salvation of God 
is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it." 
The quotation from the prophet Isaiah, from the 
Messiah, Jesus Christ, and from the Apostle Paul are 
all given here in full, and are obviously more valua- 
ble as not being in identical words further cor- 
roborated in the epistle to the Romans 11-25:26: 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 127 

''Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the 
fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (showing the 
blindness to be temporary), ''And so all Israel shall 
be saved," "And there shall come out of Sion the 
Deliverer." 

It cannot be made much plainer to those whose 
eyes are open that the gospel of Christ could not and 
can not be accepted by the Jews, barring exceptions, 
which always prove the rule, as the rule must always 
be on the side opposite to the exception. Now, in 
view of the fact that God is the embodiment of love, 
kindness, justice and mercy, and no respecter of per- 
sons, and this, as we understand. Love, Mercy, 
Kindness, Justice and respecter of persons, and in 
view of the promises to the Jews, with which the 
reader, if not, may be made acquainted from scripture, 
it is made certain that there is to be a time of re- 
pentance and acceptance of salvation in the future 
for the Jew, as also for those who may not from any 
cause hear the gospel in this life. The way of sal- 
vation shall be made plain to him, and each will ac- 
cept or reject for himself, some to the resurrection 
of eternal life and others to the resurrectioa of dam- 
nation and death. 

While the foregoing, with other quotations from 
Peter, is sufficient to show that repentance unto sal- 
vation may not be confined to the life of the body, 
there is yet a safe, and possibly better hypothesis of 
salvation for Jews which recognizes his religion and 
worship at its full value and countravenes nothing 



128 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

that has gone before in its application to others con- 
sistent with the principles of the Great Quinque- 
latreal, to-wit: 

(i) God is just. 

(2) God is no respecter of persons. 

(3) God is love. 

(4) Every man is a free agent. 

(5) There is none other name under heaven given 
among men whereby we must be saved than Jesus 
Christ. 

The Jew, if saved, is to be saved as an individual. 
He will not be damned for any fault of race or na- 
tion, neither will he be damned by reason of blind- 
ness. If damned, then, it will be by reason of his 
own choice as a free agent, in rejecting *the light that 
lighteth every man who cometh into the world,' 
whether it may shine for him in this life or in the 
life of the intermediate state. But as the Gentile 
who hears the gospel, may not his choice be made in 
this life between good and evil, according to the light 
given to see the good and evil 1 And the orthodox Jew 
of to-day, inasmuch as he is sincere in the worship of 
the true God, may welcome the new light when it 
bursts upon his soul, whether it shall appear to him 
after his passage across the dark river, or shall meet 
him on his journey from the life of this world to that 
of the future ; and as the Gentile again, if he shall in 
this life reject the good and choose the evil, when the 
light comes to him, as it will come, he will not welcome 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 129 

the light, but will prefer the darkness because of his 
choice of evil, and this will be the inheritance of the 
unpardonable, namely, death. 

As a people, the Jews present the most striking ob- 
ject lesson for the truth of scripture to be found in 
the world, both as to the Old and the New Testa- 
ment. In the fulfillment of prophecy relating to him, 
in the maintainance of his distinct identity regard- 
less of the utter loss of ten tribes, five-sixths of the 
whole, many hundreds of years ago, we must regard 
him among nations and races '*a child of destiny." 
To have maintained his separate identity was only 
possible through two great agencies which work to 
that end, the law against intermarriage with others 
and the sympathy of companionship under oppression 
and persecution. It cannot be a mere coincidence 
that the opinion of the orthodox Jew to-day against 
the intermarriage of his people with others is the 
same as has been held by his people through all the 
ages from the time of the incident related in the 6th 
chapter of Genesis to the time when Abraham for- 
bade his servant engaging a wife for Isaac among the 
heathen nations, and on down to the time of Ezra, 
when the Jews put away, by his order, their strange 
wives, thereby recognizing the law as valid to that 
time, and hence through the age following. 

This law, although we consider it transmitted only 
through tradition, is one of the most wonderful relics 
in the history of the human race, and is sufficient of 
itself to establish the authenticity of the Mosaic his- 



130 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

tory of creation, as well as to establish the distinct- 
ness of the Adamic race from all others. Forbidden 
marriage with other nations or races, the Jewish rem- 
nant of the two tribes can claim to be the purest- 
blooded people to-day of the Adamic race, while 
the other descendants of Noah's sons, Japheth and 
Ham, having absorbed the ten lost tribes, have pro- 
duced a white race, Anglo-Saxon, Celt, Frank, Dane, 
Scot, etc., mainly Christian, and possessing sufficient 
virility to conquor the world for God and civilization. 
The ground here taken is only tenable on the hy- 
pothesis of a local flood and the further fact that the 
Hamites were not negroes. It seems where there 
are so many repeated references in scripture to this 
people as God's peculiar people, that it was God's 
purpose to keep at least a remnant of them in a state 
of compartive blood purity, and this royalty of blood 
has asserted itself everywhere and in every avocation 
which the Jew has chosen. 

In many cases exiled wanderers, they have proven 
excellent soldiers for every government to which they 
have owed allegiance. Citizens of every country on 
the globe, where commerce is known, they have ex- 
celled in the learned professions, they have achieved 
success in every calling as useful, quiet and peaceable 
citizens, while in their domestic and family relations 
their lives are worthy of imitation by many who are 
not aware of it, and would not willingly admit it. 

It is an ignorant and illiterate Christian who can- 
not appreciate the Jews as a people who furnished the 



OF RE VELA TION AND RE A SON 131 

prophets and gave to Christendom such sinless men 
as Jesus Christ and John the Baptist — the first uni- 
versally admitted among Christians as sinless, the 
latter (I write for Christians) according to St. Luke, 
filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb; 
a people whose founder, Abraham, God favored so 
greatly as to send to him a special priest, Melchizadek, 
doubtless as guide and instructor in Truth, who, as a 
manifestation of God was of no lower degree than 
the Son or the Holy Ghost. 

Recently a Jewish Rabbi was asked why the Jews 
do no missionary work in behalf of their faith, to 
which he replied that the people were contented to 
employ themselves in kindly offices for their own 
people, and on that account had no time to engage in 
missionary work. Neither the one asking nor the one 
answering seemed to realize the absurdity of the ques- 
tion or the answer, since, although a Jew may be- 
come a Christian, to be a Jew requires that one be 
born such, for the Jew holds a peculiar place by in- 
heritance. For a Christian to assume the veil of a 
Jew would be like hiding his head in the sand^ 
Through faith any one may become a Christian,, 
hence the catholicity of the faith both as to doctrine 
and inclusiveness. 

What is a reasonable solution as to the outcome of 
God's administration to the Jews? The answer of 
the Holy Ghost to the prophet to the question, 
**Howlong," gives a definite time after which this 
deafness and blindness is to cease. The promises 



132 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

for which being so numerous, both from the Old and 
New Testaments, it is not thought necessary to give 
the many references here. The restoration of the Jews 
granted, then it is our business to inquire as to the 
method, etc. 

Answering those who have fixed a place in Pales- 
tine and the time of their conversion to Christianity 
there, as soon as they are safe in possession, etc., 
the question comes as to the fate of those who have 
and will have died prior to that time. All of those 
having been excluded, as it were, from the benefits 
of salvation, so the only reasonable answer seems to 
be that their eyes are not to be opened until they 
shall have entered the future life, the Jews by no 
means constituting all of those who have that oppor- 
tunity of acceptance or rejection of the salvation of 
the life beyond, the scripture for whicn is not want- 
ing, but is found in the 3rd chapter, i8th, 19th and 
20th verses of the First Epistle of St. Peter: *'For 
Christ also has suffered for sins, the just for the un- 
just, that he might bring us to God, being put to 
death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit, by 
which [in the spirit] also he went and preached unto 
the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedi- 
ent when once the long suffering of God waited in 
the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, 
wherein few, that is eight, souls were saved by water." 

And in the 4th chapter and 6th verse of the same 
epistle he says, '^For unto this end was the gospel 
preached even unto the dead that they might be 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 133 

judged indeed according to men in the flesh but live 
according to God in the spirit." 

That the words 'spirits in prison' in the first 
quotation may be better understood, they are to be 
construed as the prisoners of hope mentioned in 
Zecheriah as also those spoken of in Isaiah, evident- 
ly being the spirits of the departed confined in a 
narrow sphere of consciousness, of very limited asso- 
ciation. This removes all obscurity in the first quo- 
tation and there seems to be none in the second. 
These quotations and those preceding, taken with 
other well-known and self-evident facts, seem to 
establish beyond a reasonable doubt the theory of 
repentance beoynd this life, and an intermediate 
state. 

It is not to be inferred from what has gone before 
that all Jews are to be saved any more than all other 
mankind. There will be reprobates, as of other 
classes, men who like Judas Iscariot, of whom our 
Saviour said, ''It were better he had never been 
born." Men who choose evil to be their God and 
having hardened their hearts will never be forgiven 
* 'neither in this nor in the world to come," from 
which we infer there is forgiveness for some in the 
world to come, since, if not, it would have been 
sufficient to have said, "will never be forgiven;" 
which deduction is made stronger by the fact that 
our Saviour was not given to redundancy, vain repeti- 
tion or any vain word or act. We cannot deduce 
from what he says herein that every man can hope 



134 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

for a place of repentance and forgiveness after this 
life, which is not intended for those who may hear 
the gospel and reject the offer of eternal life. 

Having demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, 
both by Old and New Testament scripture that God 
has not intended that the Jews should or could accept 
the salvation of Christ in the past or the present or 
probably the future of this age, we are brought to 
the point of inquiry as to what his design may be in 
regard to the spiritual welfare of these people. To 
this inquiry, in view of the justice and mercy of 
God, in view of the fact that He is no respecter of 
persons, that the Old Testament scripture is teem- 
ing with promises, many that cannot be construed 
otherwise than as spiritual, for the Jews; of the fact 
that every one is individually responsible for his own 
acts and his own choice between right and wrong 
and good and evil, that every man must work out 
his own salvation with fear and trembling, that there 
is but one name under heaven and among men 
whereby man may be saved, that every human being 
is entitled to his or her *day in court,' that such a 
day was reserved for those to whom our Saviour 
preached, because they had lived before the gospel 
days and had sinned without the law, there can be 
but one answer, and that is there shall be an equal 
opportunity for salvation to each and every one 
that shall be born into the world (John 1 19). This be- 
ing true, if the Jew be denied the gift of eternal life 
while in the flesh it is certain that it will be offered 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 135 

to him, either at the time of his departure from this 
life or in the intermediate state. The time may- 
come to them in this life when their eyes may be 
opened, and they may see as other people, and a pro- 
portionate number, as of other peoples, be con- 
verted; but it is not, as we know, in accord with the 
divine plan that nations or races ; as a whole are to 
inherit eternal life. As individuals there are pious 
persons in every nation or race; there are pious Jews, 
and pious Mohammedans, as there are pious Chris- 
tians; each endeavoring to obey God as his con- 
science dictates. If the future fate of one has its in- 
ception here, why may it not be so with the other.? 
The Christian shows his faith by his baptism, which 
is pleasing to God, then why shall not circumcision 
suffice for the Jew.? To which may be added the 
words of St. Paul in First Corinthians 12:13: ^'For by 
one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether 
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; 
and have all been made to drink into one spirit." 
St. Paul says at last all depends upon the ^'circum- 
cision of the heart," and so we are brought to the 
final conclusion that the Christ will appear before 
the Jewish consciousness and he will accept Him 
after having been convinced that Christ is the De- 
liverer. ''The redeemer shall come to Zion and unto 
them that turn from transgression in Jacob," if he 
has lived conscientiously in this life; if not, he will 
reject and perish everlastingly, as a natural corollary 
to a choice previously made. Now in contemplating 



136 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

the Jews and their history it is difficult to decide 
which is the more wonderful; but that God has used 
the Jew as an object lesson in revealing Himself to 
man and carrying out His purposes for the good of 
mankind, is certain. Be sure He has not and never 
will forget people whom He has preserved through 
all the ages, a people who were great long before the 
great nations of the present day were known to his- 
tory, a people who have outlived the great nations of 
ancient times which persecuted them, including 
Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans, 
while remarkable as it may seem, and to which our 
attention is called by Keith on the prophecies: '*The 
Persians, of all the nations around Judea, who re- 
stored them from the Babylonish captivity, yet re- 
main a kingdom." It is true the Egyptians remain, 
but not under the same kingdom as then. It pleased 
God to elect the Jews a chosen people, and bestow 
upon them many temporal favors, after which He 
has sent them many temporal afflictions, as His own 
spoiled children, and, as Paul says, it has all been 
done that we Gentiles might profit therefrom in the 
way of salvation. We should be careful how we pass 
judgment upon them, much less should we, who 
know better, persecute them. 

The history of nations shows that wherever the 
hand of persecution has been laid upon His people, 
God has, while strangely enough permitting it, struck 
back with a terrific fury, which He has declared He 
would do (see quotations. Gen. 12:3, also Jer. 30:30): 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 137 

**I will punish all that oppress them." Let Russia 
read and beware. God said to Abraham, '*I will bless 
them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee." 
In America, as in other countries, where the Jew has 
prospered and grown wealthy, or is very busy in ac- 
quiring wealth, his religion is not conspicuous, 
showing much the same tendency as other men to 
have his religion swallowed up by the possession of 
wealth or the mad pursuit of it. There are many 
difficulties in trying to solve the problem of God's 
purposes relating to the Jews; among others, the 
difficulty of discriminating between that which is 
spiritual and that which is temporal in prophecy re- 
garding him, both as to promises and punishment. 
With the veil over his eyes he appears less culpable 
than other, men for any wrong done, and we are 
forced to account for the persecution put upon him 
as in the light of chastening inflicted to make him 
more submissive to God's will. His ancestors, being 
a very active race, were a very fierce and rebellious 
people, as other races have been in time. We have 
to recall that they threw down God's altars and slew 
His prophets while He was working great miracles 
in their behalf and before their eyes. It seems op- 
pression was necessary to keep them in reasonable 
bounds of submission, and so it may continue to be 
if we are to construe the prophecies literally which 
say, ''I will scatter thee among the heathen and dis- 
perse thee in the countries and will consume the 
filthiness out of thee," Ezekiel 22:15. '*And so all 



138 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Israel shall be saved," Romans 11:26. While we 
hope that their persecution is nearing the end, there 
may be yet great chastening needed to save them. 
How strange does all this seem, when we know the 
Jew to be such a quiet citizen! A court official has 
said to the writer that after a long attendance on 
courts, he has no recollection of having seen a Jew 
arraigned for a crime. His tender sensitiveness in 
matters of religion was recently shown to the writer 
by one, in the way he was evidently shocked, by rea- 
son of a conversation between Christians who were 
speaking disrespectfully about entertaining their ex- 
pected Pastor. 

In the hope that he may not be adjudged pre- 
sumptions or impertinent in the discussion of this 
wonderful people, the writer closes this chapter 
with the assurance that his purpose in the discussion 
has not been prompted by an unworthy motive; but 
has been in the interest of his argument, and the 
promotion of kindliness between all concerned. It 
seems that God has made a great use of the Jews to 
prove the truth of His religion. The history of His 
Church is so plainly written in the history of these 
people, that in reading their history, a man would 
need to force himself to disbelieve it. The tree of 
life comes down the ages from the Garden of Eden 
along with the Jews, to be seen in the vision of St. 
John in the Isle of Patmos. The Sabbath Day 
comes with them from creation to the present 
time. The Feast of the Passover comes with them 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 139 

from the night they left Egypt, and is perpetu- 
ated in our Easter, and commemorated in our Holy 
Communion. Abstinence of things forbidden by 
Mosaic law, and observance of the law against mar- 
riage with other peoples, have come down from the 
time of Moses. If their law in regard to marriage 
had been disregarded, their identity as a people 
would have been lost long before the Babylonish 
captivity. 

Hebrew became a dead language 500 years 
before the Christian era. This refusal to intermarry 
not only kept them pure, but from the idolatry of 
neighboring nations. They were forbidden to marry 
with the Canaanites, and also their descendants, the 
Gideonistes, who as descendants of Ham became ser- 
vants of servants, as in the case of the Egyptians, ful- 
filling the prophecy of Ham's curse. They were 
forbidden to marry with the Moabites and the 
Amonites, but posterity from intermarriage with the 
Egyptians and Edomites became cleansed in the 
third generation. From the American Israelite 
is given the "Return of a Wonderer," as follows: 

*'Rev. Samuel Freuder, a graduate of the Hebrew 
Union College, seventeen years ago was converted to 
Christianity, and was baptized by the Rev. Bernard 
Angell, pastor of the Dewitt Memorial Church, New 
York. After working as a Congregationalist in 
New York and Boston, he joined the Episcopal 
Church and was ordained. He was stationed for a 
time in Philadelphia, then in Chicago and recently 



140 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

in New York. He is canonically attached to the 
diocese of Pennsylvania. After his conversion he 
took a course in Christian theology, mastered the 
New Testament history and doctrines and became 
a missionary to the Jews, working for a con- 
siderable period in Boston." 

''When the Boston Council decided to hold the 
third Sabbatical Hebrew-Messianic conference. Dr. 
Edward S. Niles, president of the council, and one of 
its founders, wrote to Mr. Freuder, inviting him to 
be one of the speakers and requesting him to choose 
the subject of his address. The title which he se- 
lected was 'Christ in the Talmud.' He said in 
part: 

" 'I do not believe that missions, as they are con- 
ducted, are worth anything. The criticism against 
missions is two-fold: First, that those in the work 
don't believe what they are preaching; second, that 
the missionary is in it for money. 

" 'You don't know what it means and costs for a 
Jew to be baptized — the rended soul, the disrupted 
family, the desertion of friends, the loss of respect. 
How can you expect that a Jew who has forsaken 
the faith of his fathers can sing: "O happy day 
that fixed my choice?" I tell you there is no happy 
day for him. 

" 'The name of Christ and Christianity has so long 
been associated with the wrongs, sufferings, sorrows 
and persecutions of the Jews, that an Israelite can 
never forget it. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 141 

'' 'From this day forth I will never baptize a Jew or 
anybody else, for I won't make anybody suffer as I 
have for the last nineteen years. 

'* 'If I ever preach in a Christian pulpit again, may 
my right hand forget its cunning, and may my 
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. 

'' 'I don't know where I shall go, or what I shall do. 
I have no money and no family. My church will no 
longer fellowship with me, of course, and perhaps the 
Jews will not. But I can still fellowship with the 
dead prophets, saints and martyrs.' 

''He then left the puplit, probably forever. 

"Just before his departure for New York, Mr. 
Freuder said to a reporter : 

" 'I would rather peddle with a push-cart than re- 
turn to the Christian pulpit. I am going back to 
New York immediately. What I shall do when I 
get there I don't know. I have been waiting for 
seventeen long years to say what I said yesterday, 
and am glad it is out of my system.' 

"Mr. Freuder added that he would seek some busi- 
ness engagement and had no idea of resuming re- 
ligious work." 

This account will be understood differently by 
different people ; by most of Jews and some Chris- 
tians it will be accepted as indicating that a Jew 
cannot be converted to Christianity; however that 
may be, this case shows that Mr. Freuder only 
adopted Christianity, and never becoming regenerate 
found his profession very irksome, and, like some 



142 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Christian clergymen — having adopted their profes- 
sion without regeneration — they have the same ex- 
perience, and grow weary in their work. They have 
not had the vision that St. Paul met on the road to 
Damascus, or the experience of Jacob at Penuel, or 
of Moses at the burning bush, or heard the '* still 
small voice" which spoke to Elijah; which responds 
not to genuflexions, or loud acclaim, but rather to a 
bended will and to a contrite soul. **No man can 
say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost," 
I Corinth. 12:3. 

This chapter would be incomplete or at least un- 
satisfactory without some reference being made to 
the spiritual promises and prophecies relating to the 
return of the Jews to their old home in Palestine, that 
home which was their inheritance by a deed of gift 
from God to Abraham and to be the inheritance of 
their posterity forever; which inheritance the Israel- 
ites — after a sojourn of 400 years in Egypt — re- 
turned to occupy, and to which they returned from 
Babylon. Those who doubt their ultimate return to 
this land must doubt the truth of the scripture to an 
extent for which this writer is not prepared. Cir- 
cumstances point most favorably to the fulfillment of 
this prophecy and show there is wanting only the in- 
clination of the Jews to repossess the land and oc- 
cupy it, since it is entirely practical. The land by 
reason of its partial occupation by thriftless people, 
may be obtained by purchase, for which the Jews 
have ample means, as they are, in proportion to 



OF REASON ANDRE VELA TION 143 

numbers, the wealthiest people in the world. They 
are politically shrewd enough to make an ad- 
vantageous deal with the Turks and Arabs, and by 
gradual and well-managed colonization they are 
capable, and the land susceptible of being brought 
to a high state of development, agriculturally and 
commercially. As a nucleus upon which a great 
growth may come, travellers relate (see Keith's 
Prophecies) that the descendents of Jonadab, the son 
of Rechab, are there in the land, that they have been 
there since the days of Jonadab in perfect purity of 
race, and now number about sixty thousand souls. 
(See the story and prophecy relating to them in 2 
Kings 10:15,17; in Jeremiah 35:6 and in i Chron. 
2:5s). That they will return, we have the prophe- 
cies as follows (Duet. 30:4,5,): ''The Lord thy God 
will turn thy capacity, and will have compassion 
upon thee, and the Lord thy God will bring thee into 
the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt 
possess it and he will do thee good and multiply 
thee above thy fathers. ' ' 

Isaiah ii:ii, 12 says: ''And it shall come to pass 
that the Lord shall set his hand again the second 
time to recover the remnant of his people, which 
shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from 
Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from 
Shimar and from Hamath and from the Islands of 
the Sea, he shall set up an ensign for the nations, 
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather 
together the dispersed of Judah from the corners of 



144 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



the earth." Again, we read in Isaiah 60:8,10: 
*'Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves 
to their windows? Surely the isles shall wait for 
me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons 
from far, their silver and their gold with them unto 
the name of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One 
of Israel because he hath glorified thee. And the 
sons of strangers shall build up thy walls and their 
kings shall minister unto thee; for in my wrath I 
smote thee but in my favor have I had mercy on 
thee." 

Isaiah 61 14 '*And thy shall build up the old wastes, 
they shall raise up the former desolations, they shall 
repair the waste cities, the desolations of many 
generations." 

Jeremiah 31:38, *'Behold the days come, saith the 
Lord, that the city shall be built from the tower of 
Hananeel to the gate of the corner, and the meas- 
uring line shall go over against it; and it shall not 
be plucked up nor thrown down any more forever." 

Ezekiel 36:24, '^For I will take you from among 
the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and 
will bring you unto your own land." Ezekiel 37:21, 
*'Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will take the 
children of Israel from among the heathen, whither 
they be gone, and will gather them on every side, 
and bring them into their own land." Amos 
9:13,15, ''Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that 
the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the 
treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 146 

mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills 
shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of 
my people of Israel ; and they shall build the waste 
cities and inhabit them ; and they shall plant vine- 
yards and drink the wine thereof. They shall also 
make gardens, and eat the fruit of them, and I will 
plant them upon their own land, and they shall no 
more be pulled up out of their land, which I have 
given them, saith the Lord/' 

Micah 2:12, '*I will surely assemble — Oh! 
Jacob — all of thee, I will surely gather the remnant 
of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of 
Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold they 
shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of 
men.'* 

Here are only some of the prophecies relating to 
the return of the Jews to their country, and they 
show conclusively that they will go before the end of 
time. It may be very far in the future, or it may 
be very near at hand. If going suddenly, they 
should take their vast wealth away in currency, woe 
to the prosperity of the Gentiles! *'For ye shall eat 
the riches of the Gentiles," Isaiah 16:6. 

The Rechabites claim their descent as being di- 
rect, and their blood as kept pure by avoidance of 
outside marriages. They are said to be well in- 
formed in Hebrew. This alone would be remarkable 
if it were the only remarkable fact connected with 
this wonderful people. Another remarkable fact is, 
that while a great many Jews became converts to 



146 c^j^:s7:A:,v7y /:>' 7he l:7ht 

Christianity in the beginning of the Crristiar. era 

:;.:V P^ui's Erist'e :: :he He::e^:v5 . 3.nd ten tribes 

ere Vr: s: :::^ :-e Gerr: "es i: r : 'e :r:any others 

i:e : ::s::^:r:/ :e ::^ s :::rr^e;- :.:::! is: :n the ever 



■%▼- - - ^ — 



: :: ::e :: Lje::::.es. : :::: ersion, or supp 
sion to Cr-r:s::a.r :: . :r.ere :s e:. and will be 



e ker)t within certain 



v:rld, accord:::^ :: ±e rr :-e:y 
rev shall remain blind until the 
:^ f the Gent::es re : :e " and 

sr.rii ::me to Isrr.ei. T.e soirit- 



.r.e jDi 



lition of the Redeemer, no: ?,s re: re s:s:ed) 

er/ individual wiU accer: :r.e rr-rei sri a- 



Re^rrr::;^ ::re r-:r.rn of the Je".'s :: rr.les:::ie m 
3.:r; . er : :::s:reri:ie :vr ;;:er :i;ere :s ::o immediate 
prosre::. Since 1S7S trere his reer. ar. irhrer.ce at 
work, set on foot : Er.^rri, : :r :he er::r:r^e- 
ment of Jewish inves::r.er.:s m lam :r.ere. as veh as 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 147 

in trade, by reason of the English interests in Turk- 
ish bonds. At that time England, by showing her 
teeth through a naval demonstration, convinced 
Russia of the danger of encroachment upon Turkish 
rights. But the maintenance of national equilibrium 
and prevention of aggrandizement of the powers 
which contemplated the dismemberment of Turkey 
is said to have been a motive of England, while en- 
couragement by protection to Jewish investments 
was the result. 

O Almighty Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, by whose faith eternal life is made our inherit- 
ance; we pray that Thou mayst in due time bring 
home to Thee every wandering child of Thy covenant ; 
through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
Amen, 



148 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



VIII 

UNPARDONABLE SIN 

**/^LL sins may be forgiven unto men, except the 
jLjL sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall never be 
forgiven, neither in this world nor the world to come, '* 
Matthew 12:31. This implies that some sins may 
and will be forgiven in the world to come. He who 
spoke as never man spoke, and w^as the greatest 
Master of expression, was never redundant or vain of 
speech. He abounded in terse and pointed expres- 
sion. We may be sure that if no forgiveness in a 
future life w^as to be expected, He would have ended 
the sentence without adding, ** Neither in this 
world nor in the world to come." It would have 
been fully as complete to have said, ''All sins may be 
forgiven to men except the sin against the Holy 
Ghost." There are perhaps many more of those 
who are guiltv of this sin in the world than the 
world is conscious of, while they are themselves un- 
conscious of their spritual condition and danger, by 
reason of inattention to it or absorption in w^orldly 
affairs, or both, as the case may be. Anxiety on the 
part of anyone who might fear he or she had been 
guilty of this sin while in a normal state of physical 
health and strength, may be deemed as evidence 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 149 

against the probability of its commission. And it 
may not be an unreasonable conclusion that only 
those will be lost who have been, or will be, guilty of 
the unpardonable sin. 

Such an important place does sin, known as the 
* unpardonable,' hold in the economy of Christian re- 
ligion, that it requires careful and prayerful atten- 
tion and consideration in this book. This sin, 
otherwise known as sin against the Holy Ghost, par- 
takes more of the nature of a condition or state of 
spiritual life, than a particular and specific act. It 
is progressive in its nature and effects, and yet it 
may be the result of an instantaneous decision in re- 
jecting the Gospel or resisting its tender wooings; 
or it may consist in putting aside and turning away 
from the Gospel pleadings until the Holy Spirit of 
God comes no more forever. The sin becomes un- 
pardonable inasmuch as the man loses both the 
power and the inclination due to the laws which gov- 
ern his spiritual nature to bring himself into the 
necessary state of receptiveness for the Holy Ghost. 
Then the enmity of the man towards God and His 
Church begins to grow, and so he lives in a state of 
unpardonable sin, which ends only with the death of 
the soul. 

The use of the word used by the prophets of the 
Old Testament to show the short-comings of Israel 
and Judah, is not in such sense as may be applied 
to regenerate Christians. Backsliding, in case of 
Christians, would imply that they never had eternal 



150 c^r:^s7:.^:>vr}' :.v the light 

life, or if otherwise, then would it constitute the un- 
pardonable sin referred to in Luke 9:62: "And 
Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to 
the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of 
heaven." John 5:14, "Thou art made whole; sin no 
more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." 

Alas! for those who think lightly an:: s;:eak care- 
lessly of backsliding. Let them hee : :- vords of 
Scripture on that subject: "Now the .:^: shall live 
by faith, but if any man draw :;,::<. ::iy soul shall 
have no pleasure in him/' Heb. iz sS. 

The misappropriation of the word 'backsliding' to 
a lapse of interest, or enthusiasm in its application in 
devotion to church work or attendance upon church 
worship, has wrought great harm t : :he church, and 
to the pr:>:ress :: the work of the church. Men who 
have not re :he Pible with attention, having in 
some way g.cdneei :^e idea that backsliding or "fall- 
ing from grace" is a matter of frequent occurrence 
and trifling importance, find a certain kind of excuse 
for their lapses with a consequent neglect of relig- 
ion, which by such encouragement grows into a habit 
of life. The duty of the clerg}' is discouragement of 
the use of this term, by showing the connection in 
which it is use . its inappropriater.ess t: an- 

other use. 

Many of the excessive sinners are n:e:::::ued by 
St. Jude, as follows: "These rail at whatsoever they 
know not, and what they t:r.::ers:::::. ::.tturally, like 
creatures without reason in these things are they de- 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 151 

stroyed. Woe unto them, for they went in the way 
of Cain and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for 
hire and persisted in the gainsaying of Korah." 
* 'These are they who are hidden rocks in your love- 
feasts when they feast with you; shepherds, that 
without fear, feed themselves; clouds without water, 
carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, 
twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; wild waves of 
the sea, foaming out their shame; wandering stars, 
for whom the blackness of darkness hath been re- 
served forever/* Open, flagrant and not to be mis- 
taken as those of the worst element of an ignorant and 
debased state of society — doubtless characterized as 
the worst element of society as it was at that time — 
but we must always expect to find these excesses 
creeping out wherever this sin prevails. Since this 
sin attaches to its exponents as a spiritual state, in 
what is known as the refined and cultured element of 
society, none of these excesses may be outwardly 
visible; yet many persons of exemplary moral charac- 
ter are as white sepulchers, their corruption being 
within, and kept concealed for a purpose. In this 
category may be found the hypocrites of the church 
membership, but not invariably, for many hypocrites 
of the church are such without being in a state of 
enmity toward God or toward good. Their hypocrisy 
consists and is the product, perhaps, of weak points 
of character not necessary to enumerate here. These 
latter cannot be classed among the lost. Even their 
good intentions, on which account a credit is in store 



152 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

for them, may finally prevail, God being less exact- 
ing of his weak and erring creatures than man is in- 
clined to be toward his fellowman — like the Father 
of the Prodigal Son, in comparison to the brother. 
If left to the brother, the Prodigal Son would have 
been forever banished from his father's house; so if 
left to the judgment of some men, the erring sinner 
would be consigned to endless punishment; and 
strange as it may seem, some of these of such harsh 
judgment are of those who may be classed among the 
pure in heart. 

But let us not deceive ourselves as to the unpar- 
donable, or conclude that the wicked shall escape 
punishment, for the wicked must suffer in his soul 
for his wickedness, and the unpardonable shall have 
added to his suffering the death of the soul. On this 
subject and its relationship to the unpardonable 
sin, Paul says (Heb. 10:25), '*Not forsaking the as- 
sembling of ourselves together, as the manner of 
some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the 
more, as ye see the day approaching." *'For if we 
sin wilfully, after that we have received the knowl- 
edge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacri- 
fice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of 
judgment.'* 

By reason of the fact that the sin of backsliding 
has become, in the minds of a certain sect, a matter 
of slight importance, and with others a **matter of 
course," to which many shortcomings are attrib- 
uted, and for which a man is not, exactly speaking, 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 163 

culpable, it is thought well to make an effort to place 
it in its true light; the great danger of it being 
shown by its connection with that which is unpar- 
donable. It may as well be understood, then, that no 
sin or act of neglect committed in this state, or con- 
dition, shall escape punishment, however it may 
come short as a sin unto death. St. John says, 
''There is a sin unto death [evidently referring to 
the unpardonable] ; I do not say that ye shall pray 
for it." 

Men have been softened and polished by the in- 
fluence of Christianity. Since the coming of our 
Saviour their sins are not so heinous and terrific as 
those mentioned by the writers of that time; and 
while more quiet and less offensive, we have the 
same class now, as in every age, who are in a state of 
spiritual death by unbelief, only to be changed by 
faith and repentance. The marked effects upon 
those who have continued in a life of sin are very 
pkiin, and may be easily observed by the practiced 
eye. Sin brings scant pleasure to old age, when the 
tastes and passions of strength and vigor have gone. 
Bitterness of soul follows, and is often expressed in 
the scowl of the brow, and the drawn lines of the 
mouth, with the cheerlessness of departed hope, 
which pervades the atmosphere around them, in- 
corrigible in hatred and dislike, easily offended, 
and irreconcilable toward man and God. These have 
become their idols to which they are joined. The 
backslider like this is living without repentance. If 



154 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

he would obtain an insight of his condition, let him 
think of David's life, who, guilty of the most awful 
crime (for which his after life was spent in the most 
pronounced repentance, as witnessed by his Psalms 
and prayers), his humility and submission even to 
cursing, reviling and assault, and he a king, and 
withal a man ^'after God's own heart." That a sin 
becomes unpardonable is not because God is unwill- 
ing to pardon. Isaiah says, wickedness burneth as 
the fire, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire. 
There is something in the self-will which makes the 
alienation of the impenitent so complete and so 
wilful that it becomes impossible to save them, and 
this is said in full view of the words, **A11 things are 
possible with God," which means that all things con- 
sistent with God's laws and decrees are possible. 

It seems that when God determined to make man, 
beside placing him at the head, and giving him con- 
trol of the rest of the earth, he gave him a certain 
power of will, with his other remarkable faculties, 
aspirations and ambitions. It seems man's will to 
do right or wrong was given him irrevocably, while 
he was so constituted spiritually, that a life pursued 
contrary to law would lead to punishment and death, 
and a life of obedience would end in everlasting life 
and happiness. As only God is perfect, only the 
Holy Ghost (that part of God in man) can lead man 
to the everlasting life. Only such conditions as 
these enable us to understand how God repented that 
he had made man and later repented that he allowed 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 155 

Saul to be annointed king, hence the will of man to 
do right or wrong seems beyond the control of God, 
as he would ''have all men to be saved." 

It is the state of the unpardonable which is men- 
tioned in Isa. 5:18, et seq,, in terms which make 
it unmistakable, to-wit: ''Woe unto them that draw 
iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were 
with a cart rope. . . Woe unto them that call evil 
good, and good evil; woe unto them that put darkness 
for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for 
sweet and sweet for bitter . . . Woe unto them that 
justify the wicked for reward, and take away the 
righteousness from the righteous," etc., which evident- 
ly points to a state of the soul steeped, as it wxre, 
in utter depravity. 



156 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



IX 

REGENERATION 

THE words, 'regeneration' and * conversion,' hav- 
ing been used interchangably to signify the same 
act, or condition, have been the cause of confusion in 
the minds of many persons. The one signifies a spirit- 
ual change, and the other a mental change. The word 
'converted,' ascribed to our Saviour when he said to 
Peter, ''When thou art converted, strengthen the 
brethen, " is a mistranslation due to a confusion of 
terms. Peter was converted in mind, but was not re- 
generated until the day of Pentecost, and to this the 
Saviour had reference. If Peter's trial had come after 
that event which assailed him on the night of the be- 
trayal, he would undoubtedly have met it differently 
and stood up boldly for the faith, as Vv^hen he went to 
his death at last. Our Saviour depended on Peter to 
strengthen his brethen, after regeneration, by virtue 
of his strong and rugged character; convinced by 
reason that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Capa- 
ble of and willing to preach the doctrine, yet his soul 
without regeneration, as it was prior to the day of 
Pentecost, was dead in trespasses and sins. Dead, 
for it had not received the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
which is eternal life, and which alone constitutes 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 157 

eternal life. While men may not understand the 
process of regeneration, as much else that is spiritual, 
neither do the men of the world understand the re- 
generate. When men or women resign whatever 
makes for gain, whatever makes for promotion and 
exaltation, or ease, comfort or pleasure, for the pur- 
pose of devoting their time, energies and life to the 
salvation of men, are their motives or their conduct 
understood by the world at large? Yet very many 
do, and have done this since the day of Pentecost, 
and will continue to do so, the world never knowing 
of many of the sacrifices made. 

We come now to a point where certain questions 
suggest themselves for answer regarding this subject — 
concise answers which may shorten the discussion of 
the subject and add something toward its elucidation. 

First, Is there salvation without regeneration? 
Second, Are all church members regenerate persons ? 
Third, Will all be lost, who do not become regenerate 
in this hfe? To the first question — No, because 
regeneration carries witli it eternal life, and without 
it there can be no life eternal. To the second ques- 
tion the answer is — No. To the third question the 
answer is No, for a large number of these, having 
the faith, and a hearty desire to please God and keep 
His commandments, though weak and trammeled by 
the world, the flesh and the devil, will, though it be 
at the last, through repentance, receive their soul's 
desire. 

Some, perhaps few in number, who connect them- 



158 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

selves with the church organization are as Judas 
Iscariot, of whom it was said ''It were better he had 
never been born, " and it is fair to say that regener- 
ate Christians do not walk as circumspectly (out- 
wardly) to the world as these ; preferring to please 
God, rather than deceive men. 

Many make the error — if the scripture text be 
correct — of applying the analogy of the mind to re- 
genera//^^/, instead of applying it to the regener^?/^^, 
yet regeneration is itself mysterious enough to finite 
man. Of course it is little known among the un- 
regenerate, if it has any recognition whatever, being 
within the man. When it is there, and when it 
enters, can only be known (if known at all to others) 
by its effects upon the man's life in outward signs. 
The man who is suddenly convicted and converted, 
and he who is regenerated by the faith of his spon- 
sors in baptism, may not be able each to understand 
the other, and neither may be able to understand 
how one — as John the Baptist — could be filled with 
the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. The un- 
regenerate understands neither the regeneration nor 
the subjects of regeneration, because he finds the 
persons sinful and given to weakness and imperfec- 
tion (for ''there is not a righteous man on earth that 
doeth good, and sinneth not,") and knows no differ- 
ence between their motives and the motives of others. 
Brought to the last analysis the only absolute and 
defined distinction is in the unseen motive. If the 
motive, in the absence of strong will power, grows 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 159 

weak and reduced to mere desire shows little ex- 
ternal signs of difference and becomes at last only 
known to God ; yet the difference is there, however 
indistinct, and consists in the desire in one to do 
right and the absence of the desire in the other. 
Persistent desire for good in the one, ending in ulti- 
mate triumph, while the desire for evil in the other 
culminates in punishment and death. An infant who 
becomes regenerate by baptism, would hardly be 
said to be a convert, or to be converted. A heathen 
won from idolatry may be called a convert, and a 
time, however short, must intervene between his 
conversion and his regeneration. There must be 
some sort of interval, preceded by conviction. 
Schools of Theology may decide that conversion im- 
plies that regeneration follows, as by common ac- 
ceptation of its meaning yet they cannot make 
them synonomous or identical. That there can be 
conviction without regeneration is certain, since all 
men will sooner or later be convinced of the truth of 
scripture teaching, whether saved or lost. At last, 
then, what we say of regeneration for our present 
purpose is, that regeneration is the gift of eternal 
life ; the absence of it is death to the soul hereafter. 

Regeneration may be called a spiritual process, 
wherein the life of God comes into the souls of men, 
the coming being dependent upon the soul's faith, 
desire and submission. Without regeneration there 
can be no salvation, because only through regenera- 
tion can we obtain that eternal life which will endure 



160 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

eternally. There is but one eternal life, and that is 
the life of God. When we obtain that, we have 
both eternal life and everlasting life. Everlasting 
life has been considered different from eternal life, 
for the reason that the latter term has been applied 
to life that has existed for all time, and will exist 
through all time. This distinction must fade away 
when we reflect that only the life of God can endure 
forever. The heavens and the earth shall pass away — 
only the life of God is without beginning; hence 
therefore, only eternal life can be everlasting, and 
this is not the natural life of the human soul, but 
such life as is imparted to it in regeneration. The 
proportion of unregenerate Christians appears to be 
much greater than the regenerate, but we are not to 
infer from this that such are to be lost finally. No — 
barring the hypocrites (and they are comparatively 
few in number), for only those are to be utterly lost 
who are guilty of the unpardonable sin ; that is, such 
as are in a state of unpardonability — a state of the 
soul which would reverse right and wrong, good and 
evil, truth and falsehood ; such a state as that of the 
evil one who alike hates God, right and truth : so 
then, as long as one is not in the unpardonable state, 
he will desire right rather than wrong, and being 
capable of repentance, he will receive pardon and 
the gift of everlasting life. We may be assured that 
so long as sin may be pardonable, God will pardon 
it, and every one in a pardonable state will be 
capable of repentance. Much allowance will be made 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 161 

for deeds done in gratification of the flesh, by those 
whose souls are yearning after right. 

In regeneration the Spirit of God comes into the 
soul and dominates it in direct proportion to the will 
power and the devotion of that soul. Here the 
Christian character should begin its development, the 
will and devotion (the latter the fruition of love) com- 
peUing obedience, and thereby acquiring eternal life 
more and more abundantly. 

Neglect of duty and disobedience decrease the in- 
fluence of divine life in the soul. Obedience to the 
ordinances of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, in 
faith, gives us that life, and increases that life within 
us, so that we have, — ''Ye will not come to me that 
ye might have life, " and ''Except ye eat of my flesh 
and drink of my blood ye have no Hfe in you;" and 
again, "Who eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood 
hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last 
day." 

How strange it is that in the face of this plain 
language, so many people walk away, having de- 
liberately turned their backs upon the Supper of our 
Lord. How is it that so many nominal Christians 
spend the summer in all manner of religious exer- 
cises to the utter neglect of the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper? There is nothing inherent in water, 
bread or wine to give spiritual life, but it comes of 
the obedience. 

That many of the clergy are unregenerate there is 
no doubt. Some of them even construing the im- 



162 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

pressions and assertions of Christians on the subject 
as results of delusion. Many of these, strong in 
the faith, like the rich young man — refusing to give 
up an idol even so small as pride of intellect, per- 
haps, are doing good work, while in the attitude of 
Peter, when unregenerate as he was he could, 
standing in the presence of the Master, utter that 
great truth which is the foundation rock of the faith, 
**Thouartthe Christ, the Son of the living God." 
To these, with rare exceptions, regeneration will 
come in time, there being only an occasional Judas 
among them, whose ministrations must have been 
effective for good, or our Saviour would not have 
sent him forth to preach. 

Overwhelming tribulation may be required to 
separate men, and their idols, under which they may, 
with fear and trembling, work out their own salva- 
tion. On the other hand, God*s grace may gradually 
infuse a soul, and the hold on an idol gradually be 
loosed where a life is spent in His service and in ad- 
ministering to others the means of grace. 

Regeneration and Inspiration, the one being of the 
nature of a change and the other the attitude of re- 
ceiving something which in the former is the in- 
fluence by, through or in which the change is 
effected, are so closely related each to the other, as to 
stand in the relationship of cause and effect. We 
read in the Old Testament of numerous instances 
when the Spirit of the Lord came upon men — it 
might impjel to action, to counsel, guide, direct. 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 163 

in fact to influence action in any way or even to com- 
fort and console. Inspiration is not essentially differ- 
ent from this, except it be made so by circumstances. 
In writing, the thought is supposed directed by the 
same divine influence, if inspired. Men may be in- 
spired in speech and action, so the Spirit of the Lord 
comes upon men to change them by regeneration ; it 
comes upon men to inspire them in writing, speaking 
or acting, as it came upon the prophets of old to 
prophesy, and upon Abraham, upon Moses, Saul and 
others to lead armies, fight battles, etc., and when we 
are called upon to decide the limits of that power, 
the modes, results or effects of that power, or the 
exact conditions which must obtain to invite this 
power into the soul, or the conditions under which it 
may remain there and increase or diminish or with- 
draw, we are again brought face to face with the in- 
scrutable. 

We have in connection with this exercise of 
faith one for anothet, the words of St. Paul in re- 
gard to the ** husband sanctifying the wife," etc., 
with the recognized membership of the women in the 
church through obedience of men to the law in cir- 
cumscision by which the females were born into the 
church — so to speak — by virtue of their connection 
with a circumcised race. Some are **able to explain 
away" to their own satisfaction any assumption which 
supposes a wife or a husband saved by the faith of 
the other, in view of the maintenance of the doctrine 
of free agency, and personal responsibility in all its 



164 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

integrity. Some are quite as confident that there is 
no efficacy in, or authority for the baptism of infants, 
while others find no difficulty in the matter of grace 
imparted, by faith of another, to the innocent who 
cannot discriminate between right and wrong, and 
who cannot be considered free agents while they have 
neither knowledge nor power to act for themselves. 
If the incredulous fail to see this, let them account for 
many other facts, such as the dedication of Samuel in 
his infancy to the work of the Lord ; let them ac- 
count for Jeremiah, and, except they do by reincar- 
nation, which within the writer's observation they 
refuse to do, let them account for the way in which 
John the Baptist ''was filled with the Holy Ghost 
from his mother's womb." Yet these facts can be 
accounted for consistent with free agency, by the 
omniscience of God, who would elect even in infancy 
certain persons for certain purposes whom he knew 
would accept and execute the trust. We are unable, 
logically, to account for a train of thought v/hich 
would lead one conversant with scripture and the 
church history to reject the doctrine of Infant Bap- 
tism and advocate the doctrine of Predestination. 
Continuing with the subject of Regeneration and its 
relations to Inspiration, to the visitation of the Spirit 
of God to the prophets and others, expressed in 
language such as ''the Spirit of God came upon 
him," and also in its relations to Election or Pre- 
destination, with the part it performs in imparting to 
mankind everlasting life, we acknowledge that we 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 165 

have for discussion one of the most important mat- 
ters to be classed among those connected with the 
Christian economy. Regeneration has other con- 
nections, to wit : with Baptism and with the Supper 
of our Lord. The same spirit coming into the Hfe ot 
men in regeneration as in prophecy, in inspiration or 
in any other form of influence, by which it may 
dominate the hfe of man. 

That circumcision as an act of faith, with its in- 
ference of purification was the parallel and type of 
baptism is elucidated and proven by St. Paul in the 
language to the Colossians 2:11, 12, 13, to wit : ^*In 
whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision 
made without hands in putting off the body of the 
sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." 
'^Buried with him in baptism wherein ye are also 
risen with him through the faith of the operation of 
God who hath raised him from the dead.'* ''And 
you being dead in 3^our sins and the uncircumcision 
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him 
having forgiven you all trespasses." The relation- 
ship existing between circumcision and baptism can- 
not be shown more clearly to Christians than is 
shown in this quotation. Without circumcision, the 
Jew was by reason of Adamic sin, dead ; so spirtually 
are we without baptism, if knowingly we neglect it. 
Not that the mere act of baptism saves us from this 
death, but the faith with the obedience secures for us 
eternal life. 

It is plain that the analogy of type and anti- 



166 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

type in the two rites is perfect between the circum- 
cision and baptism of children, both indicating a 
cleansing from Adamic or original sin. While neither 
act may secure eternal life, yet they put one, so to 
speak, in the way of salvation by expiation of original 
or Adamic sin. Some Christians greatly underrate 
the powxr of faith, some claim the parallel does not 
hold good, as the women were left out in circum- 
cision ; others that circumcision was not a religious 
rite, but only admitted persons into citizenship in a 
nation. With those who know that the Jewish govern- 
ment was a theocracy, and circumcision was a sign 
of a covenant made with Abraham by God by faith, 
such a proposition is absurd; besides how would this 
argument sound to the Jew^s who are circumcising 
their children in faith everywhere, and under differ- 
ent governments at the present time. Perhaps this 
authority would ignore the Jews, but we dare to as- 
sert that God does not ignore them, and that God 
would not inculcate the doctrine of waiting for every 
one to reach a stage of maturity that he may make a 
choice of, or reject the faith. ''That thou mightest 
fear the Lord thy God to keep all His command- 
ments and His statutes, thou and thy son and thy 
son's son all the days of thy Hfe, " ''And thou shalt 
teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt 
talk of them when thou sittest in thy house and when 
thou walkest by thy way, and when thou liest down 
and when thou risest up. " It is unreasonable to 
claim that the women were left out of the Abrahamic 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 167 

covenant, for if the righteousness of the males (every 
woman had a father) was not imputed to the females, 
we have not read aright the 1 7th chapter of Genesis, 
especially to the i6th verse, and in connection with 
the nth and 12th verses of the 4th chapter of 
Romans. In view of these Scriptures neither Jew 
nor Christian can sneer at circumcision. 

Another argument used against circumcision as a re- 
ligious rite by the authority quoted above, was that 
some were baptized who had been circumcised, and 
hence circumcision must have been of no effect. This 
is entirely overcome by our Saviour, who having been 
circumcised, tacitly acknowledged to John the Bap- 
tist that he had no need for baptism, but that he de- 
sired it in order to fulfill all righteousness ; and by 
the apostle who decided that those Jewish Christians 
who had been circumcised had no need to be bap- 
tized. As baptism is the sign and compliance therein 
of the law for washing away Adamic sin for Chris- 
tians, so in the Jewish church circumcision is the 
sign and the law for the same purpose, and the 
requisite the same in each case — Ifaith. 

In view of the many remarkable changes in the 
affairs of God's kingdom that occurred at the advent 
of Christ, it is not strange that the rite of baptism 
should have been extended to the women — '*01d 
things have passed away and all things became new." 
The ceremonial law passed leaving the decalogue for 
the Jews, and the same for us, with the addition of 
the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount. 



168 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

With us the Lord's Supper took the place of the 
Passover type and antitype. The Lord's Day took 
the place of the old Sabbath. Election was swal- 
lowed up in the call of salvation extended to all men 
who would repent of sins, with the announcement that 
to every one who knocked the door — which had 
opened only to the elect* — should be opened to all. 
The Gospel (the good tidings of God) which had 
been known to the few elect, was to be preached not 
only to the poor, but to all men, as it was so or- 
dered. The kingdom of heaven, into which only the 
elect had been inducted, was to be ** taken by force, " 
and men were to press into it as predicted by Him 
who said, '*If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto 
me," and we might say * women' included. All man- 
kind was called, and a woman might answer the call, 
as under the new dispensation there was no right- 
eousness of another to be imputed to her, as under 
the old dispensation her righteousness was shown by 
the fact that the men were forbidden to marry the 
women of other nations, as it was considered (spiritu- 
ally) an unclean act, and was one of the causes of the 
nation's downfall. St. Paul seemed quick to detect 
any departure of the women from their usual habit 
of modest retirement, when he said, they should not 
be heard in the churches, and St. Peter seems to have 
concurred with him in opinion on this subject. 

While the women may have been too conspicuous in 
some respects concerning church matters, no blame 
can attach to them on account of the zeal that has 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 169 

pressed them into places in the church, vacant by- 
reason of the absence of men. A multitude of 
women would be deprived of the means of grace if 
they had to wait for the men to lead the way to 
church. If anti-pedo Baptists have no stronger argu- 
ment to sustain them than that given in the effort to 
sever the connection between circumcision and bap- 
tism, they are left in a sad plight by the writings of 
St. Paul on the subject. If the custom of infant 
baptism had not the practice of the church through 
all the ages since the Christian era to sustain it, it 
would be an act worthy of merit (though it might be 
performed in error or through misapprehension), as 
the act of circumcision is meritorious to this time, 
and, when done in faith, will and does receive the 
blessing of God upon it. 

Since anti-pedo Baptists are usually Baptists, it is 
fair to say in their vindication that their claim for 
immersion, as the original mode of baptism, is be- 
Heved to be well founded ; and that Baptist in this 
matter were probably the earliest protestants, though 
the first departure from the regular order may have 
been justified, in a case of emergency, where sufficient 
water was not available for immersion. However, 
while they charge others with delinquency, they seem 
as open to the charge by neglect of the rite of con- 
firmation, authorized by scripture, and practiced alike 
by Jews, Romans, Greeks and Anglicans. There 
are many conscientious Christians who know nothing 
of immersion, as some know nothing of confirmation; 



170 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

it seems each should respect and love the other. 
As far as the record shows John the Baptist was 
not baptised either way. As being filled with the 
Holy Ghost, he had no need for the outward sign ; 
as our Saviour had not, but submitted to ** fulfill all 
righteousness. '* 

In 2d Timothy 3:16 we find, *A11 scripture is given 
by inspiration of God," from which some think they 
have the authority to decide that the whole Bible is 
inspired with everything it may contain, not recogniz- 
ing the necessity for investigation to decide what is 
scripture and what is not. The text evidently refers 
to that scripture which is the word of God. One 
may not be very astute to be able to decide that 
such a part of scripture as has been introduced into 
the Bible by error, is not inspired ; so we are driven 
to the necessity of knowing what is scripture and 
what is not of the mass of literature found in the 
Bible, which can only be done by closest study, 
aided by a fair scholarship, or by relying on the best 
authority among scholars. For an ignorant man who 
can barely read to attempt to decide what is and is 
not the truth contained in scripture, without regard 
to help from the teaching of others, is rankest folly; 
yet if such a one shall read and study with an open 
mind for the truth, he may in time, by Divine help, 
come to a knowledge of the truth, or enough of it to 
gain eternal life. In this quotation we may observe 
that stress should be placed on the words 'inspiration' 
and 'scripture,' and not on the word alL The in- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 171 

formation intended to be imparted was that the 
Bible was not given as the opinions of men, but was 
the substance of the truth of God's revelation. 

Men groping in the darkness of ignorance who 
change the scripture, or add to it, as has been often 
done by scribes and others, are not inspired, unless 
by the devil, who inspires a great many men and by 
whose inspiration the thoughts and actions of some 
persons are controlled and guided through life. 

Unpardonable sin consisting in a state and not an 
act, as before stated, although without any of the 
experience of regeneration, no one who believes 
Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of mankind and pre- 
fers right to wrong will reach that state of unpardon. 
ability; if not, then such must at the last inherit eternal 
life, though it come not until the end of the last hour, 
when such a one is able to renounce, cast aside or 
throw off some favorite idol to which he or she 
has clung with unyieldiug tenacity, as long as the 
vitahty of the flesh held dominion over the soul. 
How plainly is the love of God made clear to us in 
this fact, wherein it is shown that through the merit 
of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit awaits forever at the 
threshold of such souls ever ready to enter at the 
very moment when the door shall open. Let it be 
understood, however, not of those souls already occu- 
pied by the spirit of evil, not of those who are 
'^joined to their idols," like Ephraim; not of the 
prodigal who would unrelentingly swear never to re- 
turn to his father's house, and of those of that un- 



172 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

pardonable mind who prefer evil to good, and change 
bitter to sweet. 

So then the Holy Spirit, in accordance with a 
natural law which prevails in the spiritual world and 
is inexorable, returns no more forever, and though they 
repent and suffer in remorse like that of Dives, an im- 
passible gulf will intervene between them and every 
chance of rescue, until judgment and death shall 
close the scene and the curtain shall be rung down 
upon a life, soul and body, which might be summed 
up and expressed as a stupendous mistake. 

For a correct judgment in the matter of inspira- 
tion some reflection with discrimination is required, 
as for instance in contemplation of St. John's gospel 
there would be a concensus of opinion that if any 
scripture be inspired the first chapter would be 
classed with such. But, granted, let us analyze and 
see wherein we find the evidences of inspiration. One 
of the first suggested would be that the truth taught 
is of such a nature, connected as it is so intimately 
with the Divine personality, that no man could know 
this except he had been taught of God. All this is 
true ; but suppose some skeptic should doubt the 
credibility of the source of this truth and inquire 
where John received this knowledge or information; 
and suppose St. John would say it had not been 
imparted to him in any sort of miraculous or mys- 
terious way, but had been told to him as many other 
simple truths had been told him by our Saviour; we 
would be none the less sure of the inspiration, but 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 173 

more certain because we would know by reason of 
confidence in John the truth came direct from God. 

We find our acceptance depends upon the truth or 
our faith in St. John as worthy of confidence ; so we 
find truth must play an important part in all inspira- 
tion, its importance being greatly enhanced by the 
fact that truth is divine. Many of the gospel inci- 
dents as narrated by the writers are put down as or- 
dinary events are told in history, and we may in- 
quire for the evidences of inspiration in this more 
than in ordinary history. We must look deeper for 
it than in anything connected with the substance 
contained in the narrative, although we may find 
evidences of inspiration in some of its connections. 
In the absence of these, however, we are thrown back 
upon the motive of the writer, and the probabilities 
of his narration being in accord with absolute truth, 
showing again the importance of truth in inspiration. 
We make no hesitancy of acknowledging inspiration 
if satisfied, as in the case we may say, of writers like 
St. Luke ; that the writer's motive was pure and 
he had the Divine call to write, a call not different 
in any way from a call to preach the gospel ; but 
we do not by any means claim inspiration for 
every assertion that is made by the preacher, even 
from the pulpit. We do not attach inspiration to 
any remark that in the best judgment should not 
have been made or to announcements of worship, 
etc. And we in like manner may not find evi- 
dences of inspiration in much that is found in the 



174 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

epistles of St. Paul, and especially where he disclaims 
it as he does in two instances. 

So at the last, if we would make claim for verbal in- 
spiration, we must find it outside any intrinsic value 
that may attach to the text, and if we do not connect 
it with truth by reason of its divine nature, it seem s 
we must admit it as attached by the authority arising 
from the call of the writer, but all authority seems 
exhausted when there is error, unmistakable error, 
and neither authority, truth, call nor motive is found 
behind it. It seems that any one may criticise the 
assertions of a * called' minister, though, in a ser- 
mon, while the hands of that same one will be raised 
in holy horror at a suggestion of error or the absence 
of inspiration in scripture. It is necessary only to 
call the attention of the reader to the fact that he 
may perceive the different phases of inspiration, as 
it appears in the ordinary gospel narrative of events. 
The apocalyptic vision of St. John, the words of a 
true sermon, the words put in the mouths of the an- 
cient prophets, the meaning of which they did not 
themselves understand, and the thought and actions 
of a regenerate man while desiring to please God, 
may each come within the category of divine in- 
fluence and the spirit of the same almighty power 
may control in each case. 

There is yet another kind of inspiration which is 
not known as such, or cognized under that head, yet 
it has a guiding and controUing power over men, and 
by its impelHng force without appeal or submission 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 175 

to reason addresses itself to the soul of the person, 
and that is the inspiration of evil. This influence of 
a personal devil enters into the souls of men and 
although not known as an inspiration, the exertion of 
its power to dominate the life is exercised apparently 
in the same way as the power of the Holy Ghost. A 
man with a right conception of the facts should be 
alike anxious to avoid the former and obtain the 
latter. 

Oh God, who didst teach the hearts of the faith- 
ful people by sending to them the light of the Holy 
Spirit ; grant us by the same spirit to have a right 
judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in 
His holy comfort, through the merits of Jesus Christ 
our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in 
the unity of the same spirit, one God, world without 
end. Amen, 



176 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



RACES 

IT was the purpose of the author of this book to 
postpone to a future pubHcation the conclusions 
of his studies on the subject of the origin and differ- 
ences which distinguish the races of men ; but fear- 
ing that he might be misunderstood by erroneous in- 
ferences to be drawn from some assertions found to 
be necessary and which have been made herein, it 
is thought best to make a short statement of the 
facts upon which his hypothesis against unity of 
origin for human races is based. 

Beginning with the question of Cain's wife, we soon 
meet with another and perhaps harder puzzle, as to 
how he built a city without people to inhabit it. 
Next there confronts us the question as to who were 
''the daughters of men" whom the sons of God were 
forbidden to marry. We have reason to know that 
Adam's posterity was considered the sons of God, as 
we find by reference to Luke 3:38, to wit: ** Which 
was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, 
which was the son of Adam, which was the son of 
God. " It seems more than probable that the in- 
terdict was made to the Adamic race by God against 
intermarriage with inferior races of men, and many 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 177 

of these sons of the Adamic hne kept that race in a 
state of purity, especially that branch from which 
Noah sprang, and from which God made choice of a 
progenitor of a new race. Mark that it was on ac- 
count of their intermixture with other races that he 
determined to destroy them from the earth by a 
flood. (See Gen. 6:i ^/ s€q,\ 

According to Usher's Chronology, Adam's race 
had been on the earth one thousand and fifty-four 
years at the time of the flood. It would not 
require a very astute philosopher to discern that 
the object of the marriage interdict was the con- 
servation of blood purity, from which we must 
conclude that the divine plan for a new race of men 
would be to select as its progenitor a family of pure 
blood, which doubtless he did in that of Noah and 
his family. That Noah's family sprang from the 
greatest people the earth has known to that time, is 
shown in the facts mentioned in the Bible, which 
we infer were important, as only the most promi- 
nent facts are mentioned in the Bible. These 
people were the first to till the ground ; the first to 
build a city. One of them the greatest artificer in 
metals ; another a prodigy, perhaps, in his day as a 
musician, and a manufacturer of musical instruments ; 
another the first who made tents and kept cattle. It 
might not be considered now as any evidence of 
greatness to cultivate the soil, but if we examine this 
subject carefully we will find that this curse — as 
supposed — upon Adam for his transgression, up to 

13 



178 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

his time the first man to break a law of God — be- 
cause God had never placed a law upon the other 
races ; so far as law was concerned they had noth- 
ing except some rules of government they may have 
had of their own devising — they were not beasts but 
men ; yet this curse proved to be a blessing, and 
more, it was the foundation stone not only of all 
wealth, but of all commerce and of all civilization 
that followed it. We note from the 2nd chapter of 
the book of Genesis that it '^had not rained, and 
there was not a man to till the ground." In the 
matter of rain, this may have been a local peculiarity, 
as Mexicans say in certain localities of Texas it never 
rained until the white people came, as now it never 
rains in certain parts of Egypt ; or it may refer to a 
condition that prevailed during the ages preceding 
the last final age of creation. The great canons and 
existing rivers stand out against the hypothesis of an 
absolute and universal drouth as existing up to the 
time of Adam, although the fact, if it were a fact, 
would not destroy the possibility of the existence of 
other races of men who might have lived on the sea- 
side upon fish, moUusks, etc.; the water said to have 
been fresh until the rivers began to flow into it, and 
bring the different salts from the inland salt beds. 

Pre-Adamic man might have existed for ages in 
that way. The pursuit of agriculture required a 
higher order of man than that one who had lived 
from ''hand to mouth." It required a man of more 
provident nature who could provide a place for seed, 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 179 

and save them, who could plant, toil and wait for the 
fruition. It may be said, a man of faith and hope and 
love. The first two inspiring him and the last im- 
pelling him for the sake of his family to provide 
against their want. Such a man was found in Adam 
and his race, and the agriculturist has never ceased to 
this day to follow his destiny, as witness his develop- 
ment of every country under the sun by displacing 
the aborigines, clearing the forests, and sowing the 
land to seed ; and verily these continued to be na- 
ture's noblemen, and the Aryan as soil tiller is what 
his name indicates (in Sanscrit aryd) *noble.' This 
Adamic race shows its superiority in Cain when he 
manifests his administrative and executive ability in 
drawing together a lot of savages, and forming a 
community that might be called a city. He it was 
who conceived the idea of erecting by cooperative 
effort a number of rude huts for protection in winter, 
and probably banded men together for purposes 
offensive and defensive, of which, as an example, all 
men afterwards banded themselves together in forma- 
tion of such societies or cities. It is due to this fact — 
organization — that we find in ancient times certain 
cities were each a state within itself, regardless of 
outside territory. As a natural consequence to do 
so, the sway of the city would become more and 
more extended, until larger and stronger govern- 
ments were formed, by moral suasion or by con- 
quests, as history shows. 

The popular tradition which supposes the negro to 



180 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

i)e of the posterity of Ham is entirely without foun- 
dation in fact, as shown by history and reason ; a 
flimsy fabrication constructed, kept and hugged as a 
delusion to ease the consciences of slave importers, 
traders and owners alike, with the idea that they were 
doing their commendable part in assisting toward the 
visitation of Ham's curse upon his posterity. For a 
verification or fulfillment of the curse of slavery which 
-was pronounced upon Ham, and that Egypt was the 
land of Ham, we want no better .authority than the 
79th and 105th Psalm, and that of the historian, 
Volney, who in his ^'Travels in Egypt, "says: '*Such is 
the state of Egypt, deprived twenty-three centuries 
ago of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fertile 
fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Mace- 
donians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the 
Georgians, and at length the race of Tartars dis- 
tinguished by the name of Ottamen Turks. The 
Mamelukes, purchased as slaves and introduced as 
soldiers, soon usurped the power and elected a leader. 
If their first establishment was a singular event their 
continuance is not less extraordinary. They are re- 
placed by slaves brought from their original country. 
The system of oppression is methodical. Everything 
the traveller sees or hears reminds him that he is in 
the country of slavery and tyranny." Confirmatory 
of this is the testimony of Gibbons who says, **A more 
unjust and absurd constitution cannot be devised 
than that which condemns the natives of a country to 
perpetual servitude under the arbitrary dominion of 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 181 



strangers and slaves. Yet such has been the state 
of Egypt above five hundred years. The most 
illustrious Sultans of the Baharite and Borgite dynas- 
ties were themselves promoted from Tartar and Cir- 
cassian bands; and the four and twenty Beys and 
military chiefs have ever been succeeded, not by 
their sons, but by their servants, showing clearly the 
extent to which this branch of the Hamite family 
has been subjected to servitude. " How long the 
popular tradition has existed and been transmitted to 
the effect that the posterity of Ham were converted 
into negroes, is not known, but it is very probable 
that it began about the time of what is known as the 
institution of African slavery among the Christians. 
The barbarians who enslaved them felt no need for 
such consolation. That it is only tradition, for what- 
ever purpose invented, is certain, since it is not 
history. 

The Bible gives us, perhaps, as much history 
of Ham and his sons to a certain period, and 
that period coming down to where Egyptian histoiy 
begins in hieroglyphics, as that of Japheth or Shem ; 
and it is certain they, the Egyptians, were not 
negroes. They were people of long hair, and had 
negro slaves. They conquered Ethiopia and made 
incursions there for slaves. Strangely enough a cer- 
tain most respected writer comments on the wrong 
of African slavery, while he thinks that such is the 
fulfillment of the curse upon them as the posterity of 
Ham. He points to the testimony of Volney and 



182 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



Gibbons, showing the positive fulfillment of prophecy 
to these sons of Ham, who were not negroes but 
Egyptians, and fails to see it. For the one he has 
positive history, for the other, none. The Egyptians 
are a brown race, as are many others, perhaps due, 
as in northern Texas, to climatic influence. 

Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and men 
must have been in search of some of that sort of truth 
when they reached the conclusion that Adam and Eve, 
or Noah, typical Caucasians, were the ancestors of the 
South African Bushmen, the Australian aborigines, if 
possible a low^er race ; and the Esquimau, certain 
tribes of whom are said to be lower in the scale of 
civilization than all others ; or that Noah and his 
family, also Caucasians, could have produced such re- 
sults. It appears much more reasonable to suppose a 
slight error in biblical construction as to the universality 
of the flood, and confine it, as recent geology does, to 
a certain locaHty occupied at that time by the i\damic 
race, or such of those who had not wandered away 
and located and perhaps intermarried with the 
heathen. 

In view of the fact that our account of the flood 
comes to us from Hebrew sources, and that Adam was 
the father of the Caucasian race, and the only people 
capable at that time — at the time covered by that 
history — of making anything happen of any import- 
ance, it is not strange that their book — the Bible — 
should magnify their own race as the only people, 
and ignore all others. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 183 

That Noah's deluge was local there are many 
proofs. The Hebrew term * haarats, ' translated 
''the whole earth, " is shown by good authority to 
mean here, as in other cases, a region of country or a 
certain section of the earth. Geologists find evi- 
dences of a local deluge between the Black and 
Caspian seas, where is mount Ararat, and they say 
the mountain is the product of volcanic action, such 
as has often occurred in the past, contemporaneous 
with the great local deluge. Both resulting from 
Seismic action, or earthquake, a populous town hav- 
ing been deluged and lost at the foot of Ararat as 
late as in 1821. The Black Sea being nearly ninety 
feet higher than the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf 
lower than either, it would require no great subsid- 
ence of the border of the Black Sea to deluge the 
country towards the Caspian. Lyell, the Scotch Geol- 
ogist, has estimated that a slight earthquake, with a 
subsidence of the intervening ridge would be required 
to submerge the whole Mississippi Delta country by 
Lake Superior, as this immense body of water lies 
six hundred feet above the sea. To a great deluge is 
due the formation of the mounds of the Delta, as a 
result of eddies or swirls of the currents. 

One argument in favor of the universality of the 
deluge consists in the assertion that so many nations 
have a tradition of it. This may be accounted for, as 
the Aryans got it from Japheth, their supposed an- 
cestor, and passed it down to other races, while 
others would have such tradition by reason of the 



184 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



great number of deluges occurring in the past by one 
or other catastrophe or cataclysm. Geology teaches 
that these deluges, coincident with great convulsions 
resulting in subsidences, have occurred through all 
ages of the past and down to very recent times. A 
case is mentioned in the Columbian Cyclopaedia of 
the delta of the Indus, as having occurred on June 
1 6, 1 8 19, when, by a subsidence and an inrush of 
waters, a tract of 2,000 square miles was converted 
into an inland sea. There are many other such oc- 
currences on record. 

It is hardly to be supposed that Noah had among 
his domestic animals, or that there were accessi- 
ble to him, those which were indigenous to other 
parts of the earth, such as elephants, African lions, 
polar and grizzly bears, etc., which were evidently 
perpetuated, and not brought into existence after the 
flood. It is not supposed that he preserved a pair 
of each variety of venomous reptiles, or insects which 
are said not to be able to survive in water ; therefore 
since there is no doubt that the deluge did occur, 
and the only miracle was the storm, all of Noah's 
actions as connected therewith, as the record shows, 
being conducted under natural law, it seems our only 
sane conclusion is that the deluge was local and not 
universal, except in its relation to the Adamic race. 
As before stated, we must recognize natural law as 
supreme in the spiritual world, the exceptions being 
in the cases of miracles. 

It seems better, then, to take a reasonable view of 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 185 

the Adamic race and the flood, than to accept as a 
hypothesis that which results in a hopeless jumble 
of confusion. There have been many different trans- 
lations of the Bible, and on some points the best 
may be defective. The proofs of the views here 
expressed have been passed over lightly, by reason of 
the purpose to keep this book within a certain limit 
The purpose of a future volume will be to give it 
more elaborately, in a work which has been already 
prepared in part, relating to the Bible and the races 
of men. Professor Agassis believed in the plurality of 
the origin of man, whose words on prayer are said 
to have been, ''I will frankly tell you that my experi- 
ence in prolonged scientific investigation convinces 
me that a belief in God, a God who is behind and is 
in the chaos of vanishing human knowledge, adds a 
wonderful stimulus to the man who attempts to pene- 
trate into the regions of the unknown. In myself I 
may say that I never make the preparation for pene- 
trating into some small province of nature, hitherto 
undiscovered without breathing a prayer to the Being 
who hides his secrets from me only to allure me gra- 
ciously on to the unfolding of them." 

What is said herein is said with no purpose of de- 
traction, but solely in the interests of truth. To 
whatever shore civilized man has been wafted by 
wind and wave he has there found a race of 
aborigines each differentiated from the other by its 
own striking peculiarity. All these are men, all 
with souls susceptible of eternal life, all endowed 



186 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

with that **hope which springs eternal in the human 
breast;'' and each race, however low in the scale of 
civilization and cultivation, susceptible of being 
raised to a higher plane of human life, which consti- 
tutes a part of the white man's burden, until such 
time as that race is able to stand on its own feet and 
not only bear its own, but assist in helping others. 
Eternal life will find abode in the lowly soul of the 
poor, untutored mind, leaving the proud and^haughty 
scholar and metaphysician to despair and final death. 
It is the acme of vainglory to claim credit for God- 
given gifts, as it is to attach blame and contempt to 
inherited deficiencies. It is characteristic alike of 
mental narrowness and spiritual contraction, if not 
depravity. While it be not lawful to say 'Raca' to thy 
brother, much less may we say 'Thou fool.' If he be 
raca, the blame may be his. To be deficient in intellect 
is probably due to the want of such by inheritance, 
for which the unfortunate subject is in no wise re- 
sponsible or culpable. The superiority of the Cau- 
casian race is as well known and established as the 
law of gravitation. In every sphere of thought in 
which we contemplate humanity, we find this su- 
periority, or a capacity for it, in him. To claim 
for him physical, mental and spiritual superiority is 
not all; but we may go beyond this and claim for 
him — if we may coin the expression — a superiority 
of neurotic impulsion, nerve force, with a capability 
of the highest refinement of the appreciation of the 
Divine — a closer walk with God — if called upon for 



OF RE A SON A ND RE VELA TION 187 

the proof; if reminded that no one is able to look into 
the recesses of the soul of another, yet we may see 
the fruits, and make our deductions as to the source. 
Great nerve force begets strong will power, tenacity 
of purpose is the outgrowth of this will power, which 
crystalizes into unbounded enterprise. The other 
races have never exhibited such power as the Caucas- 
ians ; they have never built such strong, powerful and 
irresistible social organizations known as govern- 
ments, and the Caucasian will never be willing to 
place into the hands of other races the power to im- 
pair in any way such magnificent social structures. 
The commingling of races under a common govern- 
ment must be fraught with danger, if not to the 
weaker race, then to the government itself as to the 
purity of its administration. We have to-day a gov- 
ernment which has reached a high state of perfection 
in its guarantees of personal freedom, threatened by 
immigration of hordes of voters ingorant of the 
principles of self-government; at the same time, a 
large element of the negro race, restless and discon- 
tented by mixed blood, impatient of restraint, and 
galling under the yoke of subordination, which cir- 
cumstances fasten upon them. This large and grow- 
ing mixed blood class cannot be blamed, if found to 
possess, as they do by inheritance, the ambition and 
much of the capability of their white progenitors. 
The pure blood negro, in recognition of his inferior- 
ity, occupies uncomplainingly the subordinate posi- 
tion to which he naturally gravitates, and in such po- 



188 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

sition may live indefinitely at peace and contented 
under a social compact with the Caucasian, wherein 
it is understood he will remain in a subordinate con- 
dition. This lamentable tendency to mingle his blood 
with the other races has existed with the Adamic 
race from creation to the present time, though for- 
biddden by God, from the time when the sons of 
God, the Adamic race, took wives from the daugh- 
ters of men. 

The hypothesis which makes Ham the ancestor of 
the negroes is not only too silly to be credited, but is 
contradicted by history, as the Canaanites were not 
negroes; and this need not be destructive of the 
prophecy of servitude, as Canaanites were enslaved 
by the Romans, Carthaginians and perhaps the Jews. 
If the curse of servitude was peculiar to the negroes, 
thousands must have escaped it in Africa; and if they 
have passed their probation of servitude by emanci- 
pation why should not the Hamites in time have 
passed from under the yoke.? We find a much larger 
difficulty in supposing all men to have sprung from a 
common parentage, which would require that such 
deterioration should have occurred as is shown be- 
tween men within five thousand years, /. ^., since 
Noah's day, or any other period of time, with such 
differences as distinguish the best type of Caucasian 
from the lowest types of other races. Such over- 
wrought hypothesis would be too unreasonable for 
the credulity of any sensible person. Besides this, 
while degraded aborigines have been found in every 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 189 

land beneath the sun, neither history nor tradition 
gives an account of such deterioration. The denial of 
it is made by the further fact that no such deteriora- 
tion has occurred in any other line of animated 
creation. 

The retrogression of races as to change in physical 
conformation, or limited vocabulary, etc., absolute 
degradation in thought as in language to express 
thought, from the high position held at the beginning 
of life by the Adamic race, whence they rose higher 
and higher to the present time, seems unreasonable. 
Then the readiness with which these people absorb 
from the Adamic race, the one of them all who can in- 
vent and contrive, makes the retrogression seem more 
improbable. To suppose that these races could have 
so retrograded, changing form, color, features and hair 
and losing mental power and mental force, and never 
by atavism making a step back toward their original 
type, although under observation, from the date of 
the flood to the present time;^.would be a tax on 
credulity that only the most credulous could stand. 
Why may we not have the truth then regarding races 
and men? To recognize the superiority of the Cau- 
casian race, is to confess a truth that is universally 
known; while an effort to establish his kinship to 
other races by identity of ancestry can give no aid to 
them whatever. Granted that the Caucasian has the 
burden of the other races spiritually, would it be 
probable that God would permit such alienation, such 
wandering away from Him, as would place such a 



190 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

burden of duty upon the Caucasian as the reclamation 
of these demands? In the seed of Abraham all the 
nations of the earth were to be blessed, and are to be 
blessed, and God has elected men for that purpose ; 
and as he has elected men, so has he elected nations 
for larger purposes ; but in making his choice (election) 
of these men as in the case of Moses and Joshua, as 
well as many others who were chosen, we can only be 
assured that God, knowing them, had the assurance 
that they would respond in the way of a right obedi- 
ence to the call. So in selecting a race as in creating 
it for obedience to the call; so in selecting a race as 
in creating it for the reclamation of the world; He 
chose not only the best fitted, adapted and equipped, 
but a race from whom enough willing souls would 
cheerfully respond for the work. 

The account in the Bible of the creation of Adam 
and the birth of his family following immediately upon 
the account of the creation of the world, would nat- 
urally have the effect of an impression leading to the 
supposition that Adam was the first man on the earth; 
but his mention in such close connection with the 
creation of the earth does not rise from such fact, but 
from the fact that the history of that race was one of 
the main objects of the record, not only as the one 
which God would have perpetuated, but as the only 
human history at that time worthy of notice. In 
fact it was the history of the only people who had a 
history worthy of the name. The sacred narrative 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 191 

tells us that Adam named his wife Eve because she 
was the mother of all living, which as it is given in 
first part of Genesis would be taken to embrace all 
mankind then on the earth as the offspring of Eve, 
except Adam. Again, when we reach the account of 
the deluge with such expression as ''The end of all 
flesh is come before me," followed in several places 
in reference to confounding of tongues of all the peo- 
ple on the earth, etc., we are most apt to decide that 
from Noah and his family descended all men and all 
races of men on the whole earth. It is admitted that 
these statements without proof to the contrary would 
be accepted in accordance with what the meaning 
conveys; but while there is the one ground upon 
which to accept this, that the general warrant of 
scripture, our knowledge of the inaccuracy of scrip- 
ture, with the fact stated in scripture to the contrary; 
with reference to other people, and the well known 
and established probability of the Jewish account be- 
ing always magnified in a way to ignore and leave out 
of consideration all other peoples; we find three 
strong probabiities against one, and that one requir- 
ing belief in the accuracy of Old Testament history 
as to detail which the facts will not sustain; there 
being according to a certain authority no less than 
thirty thousand different renderings of sentences of 
Old Testament scripture, any of which might be ac- 
cepted as well as another. 

In the way of admission of Bible inaccuracies, 
the writer can recall a case where to him a learned 



192 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

Jewish Rabbi declared that parts of a certain 
phrophecy which refers to the coming of our 
Saviour are what might be termed, mildly speak- 
ing, Christian addenda. By no means endorsing 
such a view as this, which supposes an impossi- 
bility under the care that has been given to the keep- 
ing of the scriptures, yet if those who make the 
greatest claim to the truth of Old Testament scrip- 
ture are ready to admit such laxness on the part of 
those who were for ages before the birth of Christ the 
guardians of the Sacred Book, what can be expected 
of a modern critic who finds so many different con- 
structions and renderings? God made man but he 
did not make him a sinless being. His prophets and 
inspired writers gave us the truth, but the means of 
conveyance to us have not been perfect, and never 
can be while passing through different languages. 
We could not to-day have it in perfection as to de- 
tails (although] we have it so concretely), if it had 
been originally given in Sanscrit, and transmitted 
unbroken through the ages always in the hands of the 
same people from generation to generation to the 
present time. If this be doubted, we may then ask 
how many Englishmen understand Chaucer's language 
at this time? And if knowing the meaning of the 
words, are able to decide to what extent the signifi- 
cence of the words have changed in the course of 
time ? 

Regarding the servitude of the Hamites we have 
besides the whole of the Egyptian people as examples 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 193 

of servants of servants, or slaves of slaves, or servants 
of slaves, as you like, individual instances as that of 
Hagar, an Egyptian woman, servant of the wife of 
Abraham, who was also the mother of Ishmael, which 
last is the father of the Arabian people, known by 
everyone not to be negroes. Why did not this 
Egyptian Hebrew woman or some of her posterity 
change color, become intumescent of lips, flat of 
nose, receding of forehead, kinky of hair, prolonged 
at heels and arms ? And why (if not racial) was there 
such uniformity of change to these physical charac- 
teristics from the Caucasian characteristics, when 
the change if made must have been gradual, as no 
change could have reasonably been made in Ham in- 
dividually without mention of such important event ? 
Such a sudden metamorphosis in a man — a miracle 
in the way of punishment — would probably not have 
been left out the record. Surely the greater punish- 
ment, that of incalculable race inferiority as a curse, 
would have been more deserving of notice and per- 
petuation in the minds of men than the curse of 
servitude, the former as a curse being vastly more en- 
during than the latter, and carrying the latter with it 
as a natural sequence. 

In relation to the matter of adaptability of races 
of men to certain divine purposes, it requires no ex- 
tradordinary power of penetration to be able to dis- 
cern what might not inaptly be termed the * Divine 
Plan.' If God has raised up individual men, and 
14 



194 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

called them to the accomplishment of great ends for 
the advancement of His kingdom among men, so 
much more and on a larger scale has He made nations 
to carry out His benevolent purposes for the good of 
all mankind. The progress of mankind in religious 
growth upward to the highest and best that is in the 
religion of the true God, is and has been necessarily 
slow. Adam's race being the best endowed, for the 
propagation of godlike principles among the pre- 
Adamites, men of less spiritual nature, so the best of 
his race by a course of selection have been developed 
for the great task of leading men upward in the 
march of civilization. For this great purpose the 
people of the United States of America seem best 
adapted, and the study of their history seems to con- 
firm the conclusion. This composite people is made 
of the strongest element of Caucasian blood by reason 
of the coincidental circumstances which brought them 
to this country. Although differing widely in re- 
ligious belief, it is remarkable that so many different 
shades of belief — all alike fleeing from some sort of 
persecution — should have taken refuge here. It at- 
tests the strength of their convictions, as also their 
desire for justice, with a full appreciation of it, 
that they braved dangers and risked losses to find a 
haven of peace and rest, where they might worship 
God according to the dictates of their conscience. 
In many cases the persecution was not too severe to 
be borne by a grosser and less spiritual people, but 
that they were of the highest order of the spiritual. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 195 

rendered the burden of intolerance more grievous to 
those who were the most sensitive. It may be said 
that the strongest of characters of any community of 
independent thinkers, were those who came to these 
shores, for the sake of ^'reason liberty." It was not 
more so of the Huguenots of France than of the 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, nor more so of these than 
of the Puritan Pilgrims, the Lutherans, the Baptists, 
or the Catholics; for while protestants left one place. 
Catholics left another to escape the tyranny of the 
persecution, or to use a milder term, intolerance; and 
strength of character is not more marked in any of 
these than in those Englishmen who came to Wil- 
liamsburg and Jamestown ; not character to be most 
commended for brute force, yet with physical 
stamina, gained by honest toil and temperate. Chris- 
tian lives, which was a necessity to meet the demands 
of their success; they brought with them also the 
higher spirituality which was a part of their religion. 
So while the composite posterity of these may not 
excel in physical power, although it is asserted by 
good authority that they do, yet in all that consti- 
tutes what is known as a high-bred people, they 
have perhaps no equal, as a nation on the earth. The 
handiwork of God is plain, then, in bringing up this 
people, and knowing His benevolence toward men, 
we need be at no loss to surmise the purpose for 
which He has brought them up. It must be for the 
highest purpose, and that for which they should be 
the most capable and the best equipped, and which 



196 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

it seems reasonable to conclude is the winning of the 
world for and to God. Not that every one of the 
cream of the noblest race should be a missionary to 
darkest Africa, or bleakest Alaska, but that every one 
should lend aid and encouragement to such work, 
while his example to those at and near home should 
have ennobling effect upon all with whom he is 
brought in contact. 

Mankind seems never satisfied to take scripture 
literally, when it speaks plainly, but is inclined to en- 
velop in a cloud of mystery nearly all of the plain truths 
of Revelation. While the incredulous find too much 
mystery to accept anything, the over credulous exag- 
gerate the mysterious that they may have their faith 
subjected to the severest test. It might be best for 
us to accept the plain Biblical account of the creation, 
especially where it comports with reason, rather than 
to employ ourselves with an attempttodiscover some- 
thing unreasonable with it, like Professor Winchell, 
(to whose very interesting book on ''Races" the writer 
is greatly indebted for important information), who 
builds on the hypothesis of a black human parentage 
for Adam and Eve, giving us then some vague hints 
of a bleaching process; or Sir John Davy's Albino 
origin for the white race; or like the author of '*Mil- 
lenial Dawn" and other books, who claims that the 
sons of God were Angels who married the daughters 
of Adam, begetting a race of giants, ''which was not 
approved by God;" or like Professor Shaler in his 
book, "The Neighbor" — nothingif not ethical — ig- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 197 



nores the Biblical creation, and without any sort of 
comprehension of regeneration, or its importance, 
proposes to raise all the lower races of men to a level 
of the highest, socially, by teaching them science in 
its highest branches (as absurd as reading books on 
the subject of ethics to become polite, when there can 
be no science of ethics, unless a book on etiquette 
could reach the dignity of a scientific work) ; or like 
the absurdity as set forth in their books by two dis- 
tinguished clergymen, who deny the black man the 
possession of a soul, claiming that he is only a highly- 
developed gorilla (when common sense should, in 
view of the commingling of blood of the black man 
with other races, and never with the gorilla, dictate 
thefolly of their conclusion); or that slander put upon 
the mother of the Caucasian race by a distinguished 
lady writer in a reply to Bob Ingersoll on the ''Mis- 
takes of Moses" (the name of the deceased lady being 
withheld for reasons) — a slander which supposes Eve 
to have been tempted by a negro and to have proven 
false to her husband, a slander upon the name of the 
mother of the Caucasian race, which all Caucasians 
must resent. While it may not have been sacrilege 
for Mark Twain to make fun of his visit to an imagin- 
ary grave of Adam, it is asking too much for Chris- 
tian people to place slight estimate upon the chastity 
of our first mother, one of the loveliest of women, 
as we verily believe her to have been. 



198 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 



XI 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

IT is with no invidious purpose of criticism that 
this modern cult is made a subject of discussion 
in this book; but it is brought in because it is needed 
for illustration. That this organization should be 
maligned and misrepresented is but the natural con- 
sequence of being misunderstood, and made vulner- 
able by reason of the extreme and radical views which 
they hold on some points of doctrine. This organi- 
zation, church or denomination or sect, by whatever 
name they choose to be called, is a natural and spon- 
taneous growth, the result of a revulsion against the 
extreme views of the advocates of endless punishment 
on the one hand ; while on the other hand the demand 
for it is the echo of a wailing heart which cries out 
for the love and sympathy of its God. We repeat, a 
spontaneous growtn, myriads of seed, however in- 
finitesimal, wafted by the winds of heaven over hill 
and dale to mountain tops, or carried by the billows 
of the deep to distant shores, lie unknown, com- 
mingled with the soil until the warm rays of a genial 
sunshine call them into springing, budding and bloom- 
ing life; so with the seeds sown by the lowly Naza- 
rine in the hearts of men which have neither failed in 
fruition nor in reproduction. 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 199 

Of these there are Faith, Hope and Love, but the 
greatest of these is Love. What wonder then if the 
human heart, toned by the influences of refined asso- 
ciation, and tuned to cadences of Love should long 
for the genial sunshine and atmosphere in which it 
was nurtured ; and so a gospel of Love will ever ap- 
peal to loving souls. 

And what wonder then if these people should turn 
away from cold and forbidding dogma, which offers 
to them a cruel, vindictive and avenging God ; or from 
a church which threatens them and would coerce them 
with an endless punishment in a lake of fire; or with 
what is a little less horrible, a God, who out of his own 
creation has chosen a few to enjoy everlasting happi- 
ness, while the others he has decreed shall inherit 
endless punishment. The cult has come to stay. 
Men and women flock to the fold as if they would es- 
cape a spiritual pestilence, voluntarily oblivious of 
the incomprehensible metaphysics in which its doc- 
trines are found enveloped. The one word is their 
shibboleth — Love. 

But shall a woman found a church.? No. If not, 
why not? Because the time is past for founding 
churches. Yet there are Christians and Christians. 
There are sects and denominations and organizations 
and corporations and congregations and cults, but 
while the candlesticks with the candles may have 
been removed, the bride of Christ survives, hers is a 
spiritual kingdom, one which lives in the spirits of 
her people, the regenerate of mankind. Men die, but 



200 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

principles never die ; sects may die, but the sympa- 
thies, the ideas and the longings that gave them a 
common cause, can never die; they live on to be the 
heritage of those who follow. The woman will soon 
pass away and be forgotten, while the vagaries she 
taught (all churches or sects have had them) may be 
removed as excrescences. The doctrine of the faith 
cure is not peculiar to one sect, but has been held 
throughout the ages, as myraids of faith cures have 
been known and authenticated through all ages. As 
men through all ages have recognized the difference 
between a religion which prompts a man to effort and 
that which is so highly imaginative as to cause him 
to sit still and call upon God in prayer to supply his 
wants. The lesson is as old as history, which told of 
the teamster who, when his oxen had stalled, called 
upon Hercules (the mythological god of strength) 
out of heaven to help him out the mire; and the 
answer of Hercules ordering him first to put his 
shoulder to the wheel. The gods help those who help 
themselves, was a sound doctrine in the days of 
mythology, and it is none the less so to-day, when we 
are taught that *'he that provideth not for his own 
household hath denied the faith and is worse than an 
infidel.^' 

If faith without works is dead, faith without 
work is dead. While we pray for inspiration we 
should not be afraid of perspiration. Man was made 
and constituted for a world of activity, extreme ac- 
tivity, so extreme that the harder he is worked (like 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 201 

a mule) the better he is. It is God's purpose that he 
should be absorbed by the things about him to keep 
him Sana mens in sano corpore. An idle man is in 
constant danger of mental vagary. Men by thinking 
constantly of religion have become insane, when if 
close attention had been required and given to pro- 
viding for their families their minds would have been 
kept sound and healthy. The words of Ecclesiastes, 
though not altogether plain in their signification, 
must have a meaning for those who would seek dili- 
gently (prayerfully) for it, to wit: **A11 things have 
I seen in the days of my vanity. There is a just man 
that perisheth in his righteousness and a wicked man 
that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not 
righteous over-much ; neither make thyself over-wise ; 
why shouldst thou die before thy time?" 

Mrs. Eddy was for some time under the tutelage of 
a professional psychologist of some notoriety from 
whom she obtained her ideas of mind and its relation 
to matter. She soon learned to recognize mind as 
enthroned above what is known as mental faculties, 
to wit : Intellect, perception, memory, imagination, 
conception, judgement, reason, emotion, desire and 
will. Next she finds the physical relation of the 
brain to other parts of the physical system through 
the nerves. She learned the power of the mind 
through the named faculties, say imagination, etc., 
in pain, disease and like conditions, rather in various 
conditions. These well known principles of Psychol- 
ogy furnished a basis of Truth upon which this lady 



202 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

built her supposed system of Christian Science, calling 
to her aid the long known doctrine of faith cure, and 
supplementing all with the doctrine of Love, human 
and divine. While there is a consensus of opinion 
that her system ends in the reductio ad absurdum^ 
yet with such powerful factors as psychologic facts to 
catch the semi-scientific, and Faith and Love to ap- 
peal to the over-credulous, she struck a responsive 
chord in many people. To decide upon the merit of 
her system as laid down in her writings and ex- 
pounded by her disciples would be for the writer to 
pass judgement upon the incomprehensible. Com- 
ment upon the practical deductions which come with- 
in the range of the ordinary intellect may with pro- 
priety be indulged. 

Faith in the efficacy of prayer within the limit of 
reason, and the power of Love, divine and human, in 
the universe are leading and predominant elements in 
every known system of Christianity ; hence no sect can 
claim a monopoly of these. In view of these facts, 
we may be inclined to ask by what right these people 
lay claim to separate existence as a sect. It might 
suffice with some to answer that God has a use for 
them, or they would not be, and why not.? for the 
answer of our Saviour would be in this, as in another 
case, sufficient, *' He that is not against us is for us." 
We would look beyond the personality as beyond the 
motive and purpose, if happily we may see therein 
the means and methods of God for good. While the 
power of mind over matter is nothing new, but has 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 203 

been known and utilized in medicine for ages : wit- 
ness the cure of Sir Humphrey Davy's patient by the 
thermometer used to test his fever, as also in so many 
cases the efficacy of bread pills or small doses oipura 
aqua, colored to deceive the eye ; and while we may 
not place a limit upon the efficacy of prayer or faith, 
yet we must admit a limit to the faith itself. 

St. Paul, who was ** caught up to the third heaven 
and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for 
a man to utter,'' when he says, **If I had faith to re- 
move mountains," let us know by inference that he 
did not have such faith; and although he shook a 
viper from his hand and escaped harm, yet we have 
no reason to believe that if an antidote for the poison 
had been offered he would not have applied it. In 
the language of the Revised Version, the reply of our 
Saviour to the devil, when told to cast himself down 
from the pinnacle of the temple, was, ''Thou shalt 
not make trial of the Lord Thy God." So we should 
never needlessly make trial of God by failing, declin- 
ing or refusing to use any known means of relief 
offered to us. 

So much for faith and faith cure; and leaving 
these, let us ascend to a confessedly loftier, 
higher and nobler theme, that subject which 
furnishes a sufficient apology, not only for the exist- 
ence of these people as a religious body, but for the 
discussion of them in this book. Well may we, with 
uncovered heads, tread softly and reverently while we 
would enter the sacred domain of Love. 



204 CHRISTIAXITY IX THE LIGHT 

Love, the very essence of Divinity! Have they 
exaggerated or overwrought in their exaltation of 
Love? Nay, verily the work has only just begun, 
and these may prove to be the pioneers of a better 
theology than the world has ever known — the 
theology of an expanding and endless Love. They 
are here to stay; people are coming to swell their 
numbers ; money is flowing to them to build their 
churches — and w^hy ? Because men are tired of the 
theology of an avenging God as the author and dis- 
penser of an endless torture, and welcome a theology 
which teaches of a kingdom of Love, whose maker 
and builder is God. By the vagueness of their 
theology and the extreme limit to which they have 
carried their faith-cure doctrine, these people have 
made themselves liable to much severe adverse criti- 
cism, perhaps a certain deser\'ed condemnation in 
many cases; but when the present leadership shall 
have passed, their theololgy will be fixed on a better 
basis. Ridicule and persecution will not affect them ; 
especially from those who do not understand them, as 
in the case of the otherwise gifted Mr. Clemens 
(Mark Twain). 

The force of wull is, though it may seem strange to 
some persons, in nothing so indomitable as in matters 
connected with religion. A man may be forced to 
yield to any sort of servitude rather than a servitude 
which overrides his conscience in religious matters. 
Nothing of the nature of force can bend the con- 
science, hence the utter impossibility of forcing ac- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 205 

quiescence in religious belief. When Christian 
Science shall have passed its present regime — if it 
should survive, as it appears it will — it must and will 
adopt the ordinances of the Christian Church. By no 
sort of reasoning will it be able in the light of history 
to convince mankind that baptism and the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper were to be perpetuated by being 
spiritually discerned and spiritually taken only. Men 
have made great discoveries in science for their com- 
fort and convenience. If we adopt these, why shall 
we not avail of the discoveries in medicine, etc. ? not 
abstaining from prayers for the sick, as we ask God 
to give us our daily bread, while we go forth and labor 
in sowing, tilling and reaping. 

Elsewhere attention is called to what might be not 
inaptly termed the 'Dynamics of Love.' No greater 
error can be made than that of minimizing the power 
of Love. With this power unknown and unappre- 
ciated, we are often led, in our reasoning, into. the 
realm of the inexplicable; but recognizing it, and ac- 
crediting it with the importance due, we are able to 
understand much that otherwise would be deepest 
mystery. 

Ask the Napoleons of the world what is its greatest 
power, and they would doubtless answer, *'Its artil- 
lery." Ask the Bismarks, and they would probably 
answer, ''Diplomacy." Ask the Blackstones, "Juris- 
prudence." The Esculapian might answer, "Diag- 
nosis;" while every great leader in science or art 
would probably answer in terms relating to his own 



206 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

specialty, but millions of all classes are ready to testi- 
fy that Love is the strongest power in the world to- 
day. Faith is mighty, but Love (charity) is greater. 
Three words only are sufficient to prove this asser- 
tion: *'God is Love." And one more word is 
sufficient to clinch the truth, and that is another ap- 
plied only to God — 'Omnipotent.' 

The soul of man may long for fame and glory, or 
for wealth and preferment, but the heart of woman 
naturally yearneth forever for love. David speaking 
of the death of his friend, Jonathan, said, ''I am dis- 
tressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant- 
ly hast thou been unto me, thy love to me was won- 
derful, passing the love of women." To woman, life 
becomes a blank without love. Women know this, 
and make use of it, to the extent of its full value. 
By this knowledge, through the work of the Sister- 
hood, it is the most valuable asset of the Roman 
Catholic Church, as well as that of the votaries of 
Christian Science. These know and avail themselves 
of pleasant surroundings, and cheerful and loving as- 
sociation and companionship. They know their 
effects on health, as well as on character, and how 
much they all make for happiness in this life, with 
the result that the woman who is lonely and despond- 
ent, with no one to love, coming into association with 
them, is uplifted both in health and happiness. Then 
we need not ask whether she finds it ''worth while." 
She does not feel called upon to explain the intricacies 
of its theology, or to tell why the cure may fail in tu- 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 207 

berculosis, but ready to answer, like the blind man 
who was cured, and who, being interrogated concern- 
ing Jesus Christ, said, '^Whether be he a sinner or 
jio I know not ; one thing I do know, that whereas I 
was blind, I now see/' 

If one disconsolate shall be comforted, if one lone, 
weary soul shall find rest, if one tossed and broken 
upon the turbulent waves of society, through envy, 
jealousy, hate, scorn or contempt, shall find sweet 
sympathy and peace at the shrine of Christian 
Science^ how much more^ if as much, will other relig- 
ious associations do ? 

As no person of notoriety can escape detraction by 
the tongue of envy, jealousy, or malice, so Mrs. Eddy 
has been the target for many ill-flung shafts. Some- 
thing peculiar in her life, her writings and her char- 
acter has been attractive to a large American clientele 
which has brought to her a certain kind of success, 
due to a greater extent, it is believed, to the accen- 
tuation on her part of faith and love in her teaching, 
which seems to meet the present demand, more than 
to any other cause. True, she may have evinced a 
love of gain in her calculations, many peculiarities of 
expression in her literary production (she wrote hur- 
riedly, perhaps, to meet a demand) and human frailty 
in administration of church affairs; yet it is almost 
certain that no charge of venality against her will 
hold. 

Many of her acts have been exaggerated which 
would have had no notice in the life of a less con- 



208 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

spicuous person. When she ordered her teachers to 
stop teaching verbally and read her books, while this 
was construed as with a view to her financial gain, 
it may have been that she heard, or feared, they were 
teaching heresy. In her conduct as reported toward 
her adopted son ; toward Mrs. Woodbury and others, 
although she displayed eccentricities of character, 
there seems no good ground for charging her with 
acting otherwise than conscientiously. 

Bishop Fallows, in discussing the various systems 
of Dr. Quimby, Mrs. Eddy, Dowie and others in 
matters of faith-cure, says: ''Some of them have had 
a half truth or less and have tried to make it do the 
work of the whole truth. As psycho-religious sys- 
tems they have left out the one grand foundation 
principle of the immanence or actual immediate 
presence of the Omnipresent God in His universe. 
Instead of recognizing the supreme fact that He works 
or energizes in every law bearing upon the health and 
happiness of man, they limit Him to one sphere of 
those laws. They do not see Him putting the proper- 
ties of life in food and the healing substances in the 
medicinal mineral or plant. They do not see the di- 
vine skill in the surgeon's hand and the divine pres- 
ence in the personality of the thoughtful, healthful 
physician. They do not see that both surgeon and 
physician, if true to their noble calling, are as much 
in the valid succession of the great healer of mankind 
as are the duly ordained ministers of the Great Head 
of the Church. They do not know, or else have for- 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 209 

gotten the fact, that the immediate successors of the 
apostles in the primitive church were both ministers 
and doctors, uniting religion with medicine, and were 
the first founders of hospitals worthy the name ever 
given to the world and of the best medical colleges of 
their times.'' 

This train of thought brings to mind the Em- 
manuel Movement which makes the divine imma- 
nence the paramount fact connected with ours as with 
all true religion. There is nothing **fadistic" in 
the movement, although some, like Simon the Sor- 
cerer, will try, and perhaps have already tried, to ap- 
propriate it to what might not inaptly be called vul- 
gar uses. 

To claim divine immanence and to recognize it in 
the domain of the physical as in that of the spiritual 
world in matters pertaining to health of body, of 
mind, and of soul, has nothing novel in it to Chris- 
tians. There have always been those in every age of 
man's existence since the days of Adam, who 
brought their lives into such a state of unison and 
harmony with the Divinity which was in their lives 
as a moving and directing force, as to enable them to 
enjoy the best sanity of body, mind and soul; and 
hereupon is built the edifice of the Emmanuel Move- 
ment. Blessed are those who possess the faith which 
enables them to utilize the power for others as for 
themselves. 

Of the perils of psycho-therapy which are being an- 
ticipated, we may say it has no perils. The perils 
15 



210 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

are in a false or so-called psycho-therapy; or the 
ill advised commingling or confusion of psycho- 
therapy with physico-therapy in the mind where 
faith may be an unknown quantity. 

**0h God, who hast taught us that our doings, 
with-out love, are nothing worth; send Thy Holy 
Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent 
gift of love, the very bond of peace and of all vir- 
tues, without which whosoever liveth is counted 
dead before Thee. Grant this for Thine only Son 
Jesus Christ's sake. Amen,'' 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 211 



XII 
CONCLUSION 

Bible Criticism 

WE have reached a time when Bible criticism has 
become unpopular, and justly so. A time when 
the Evolution doctrine has become to an extent unpop- 
ular, and justly so; for those who have criticised, have 
sought to discredit the Bible, and some of the most 
celebrated evolutionists among those who have gone 
farthest in research, have been impelled by the mo- 
tive of disproving the Mosaic account of creation. 

The religious world, whether Monotheistic or 
Trinitarian, have always and will always resent this 
as soon as the motive is discovered. The religious 
world is too well grounded in the faith to be moved 
by the unregenerate. In the light of these facts, and 
the other fact, that it was not necessary for the vin- 
dication of the system herein set forth, slight refer- 
ence has been made to the errors contained in the 
Bible. 

To any one accustomed to think and weigh proba- 
bilities, it becomes clearly impossible for it to have 
escaped error. It is indeed miraculous that it should 
have been preserved as it has ; but when we consider 
that the Hebrew was a dead language five hundred 



212 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

years before the Christian era, that it was trans- 
mitted through ages before the invention of printing 
by copyists and scribes, and translated from Hebrew, 
that is the Old Testament, through Greek and Latin 
into various other languages, with changing versions 
constantly being made, we may wonder to find that it 
yet contains all the truth necessary for our salvation. 
Miraculously preserved, but to have been so pre- 
served as to be found verbally inspired, and as flaw- 
less as theoriginal truth itself, would have required a 
miraculous censor to have presided over the spirit, 
mind and hand of every translator, scribe and copyist 
from the time of the ancient prophets down to the 
American Revised Version and the Episcopal Mar- 
ginal Bible. 

When scholars universally agree that certain sen- 
tences are the work of interpolation, it is time for the 
non-professional to take notice, on the same ground 
as that upon which they prepare a smoked glass and 
watch for an eclipse, trusting entirely to the scholar- 
ship of others to work it out and apprise them of its 
approach. It is deemed sufficient to refer to this 
subject, without entering upon the work of discussion 
of these errors in this book. 

The errors of the Bible — if we could class all its 
defects as such — afford one of the most interesting 
subjects for study in the field of literature. Of what 
it has lost by excision, by being misplaced or ruled 
out, there can be no conjecture; but much that has 
been added has been detected, in some cases, with 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 213 

surprising ease, such as where a bold inconsistency 
is found, with the coincidence that it is not found in 
the oldest manuscripts; or an interpolation not so 
found, which happens to have been made for a pur- 
pose, contemporaneously with a certain religious con- 
troversy on a matter of doctrine. Notwithstanding 
the light that has been thrown by study on the many 
defects of the Bible, the writer feels grateful for the 
strengthening of his faith by such study. By such 
study many of the most difficult problems of the 
Old Testament have become reasonable enough. 
Elucidation, Biblical defect, and miraculous power, 
may help us to a solution of much that appears in- 
credible. Many Christians, perhaps, doubt the story 
of the flood, and that of Jonah and the whale, but 
Christians are reminded that our Saviour gave sanc- 
tion to these, and if they accept His statement they 
can no longer doubt. Besides the story of the deluge, 
when properly understood as the destruction of the 
Adamic race — with the exception of Noah and his 
family — is not difficult to believe. 

If our Saviour rose from the grave miraculously — 
of which Jonah was the type — there is no reason 
why Jonah might not have been miraculously pre- 
served in the body of the whale. Several strong cor- 
roborative proofs have been adduced to sustain the 
story of the occurrence at the Red Sea, where the 
hosts of Pharaoh were drowned ; one of these, discov- 
ered by the writer, of itself is sufficient, with tlie ex- 
ercise of a reasonable faith, to be convincing, which 



214 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

is the 114 Psalm in its reference to the earthquake, 
of which geologists say the 'fault' is there yet. 

Incredulity as to the escape from the Fiery Furnace 
is overcome by experiments that have been made, al- 
though this was doubtless a miraculous preservation. 
Many hard propositions may in time be accounted 
for, by error in translation — as in the case of Elijah, 
where it is said he was fed by a raven, the probability 
being that the Hebrew word for Edomite, on account 
of similarity, was mistaken for the one which means 
raven; so it may be with Sampson's foxes, or the 
bears that ate the children. Erroneous construction 
plays an important part in production of error, literal 
construction of that which is figurative, and vice versa. 

The words of St. Paul to the Athenians, ''God hath 
made of one blood all nations of the earth," etc., have 
been accepted by some as proof that all races sprang 
from the same parentage. True all men had become 
of one blood in Christ as they are to-day. "If I be 
lifted up I will draw all men unto me," but if the 
writer had to believe in one parentage for all races of 
mankind, his faith in the Biblical account of creation 
would be submerged under a sea of difficulties ; besides 
we must admit that the language is figurative; as men 
are not literally made of blood. Though scientists 
prove that men have grown by evolution, the fact 
should not shake our faith in the account of Adam's 
creation as given in Genesis ; especially since that ac- 
count can only be understood on the hypothesis of a 
distinct and separate creation for Adamic man, the 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 215 

first tiller of the soil or progenitor of such, other men 
previously created produced or evolved having been 
on the earth at the time. This seems the only ten- 
able hypothesis. If the time has arrived where we 
should try to find as well as acknowledge the errors 
of Scripture, it is fully as opportune to defend the 
truth it contains ; especially when people in the inno- 
cence of their ignorance ask through periodicals, 
*'What is the use of the Old Testament anyhow f 
and when a clergyman of one of the oldest, largest 
and most enlightened Dioceses delivers and pub- 
lishes a lecture to prove the Bible record of creation, 
an allegory, and receives the congratulations of his 
Bishop. It would have puzzled one to have decided at 
what point of the argument the congratulations fell 
due; as the whole of it might have been condensed in 
an assertion of three words, ''It is an allegory." 

There seems to be nothing unreasonable about the 
narrative of the creation when properly understood, 
and if one hesitates on account of what may appear 
mysterious in it, let him — as the writer was reminded 
to do once by a revered clergyman — reflect that in 
his belief in God he is accepting one of the greatest 
mysteries, known as such, in the universe. 

Among the errors which have a foundation in truth 
may be numbered that which supposes that our 
Saviour descended into Hell in a literal sense. It 
was an important concession to truth when this was 
modified to **He went into the place of departed 
spirits;" but this, like all compromises (one of which 



216 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

it was), failed to express the truth literally as would 
have been done if the word 'state' had been used 
rather than 'place/ Naturally and rightly the Chris- 
tian mind revolted at the idea of our Saviour's 
descent to Hell, in face of the fact that from Hell 
there is no reclamation; those who reach that desti- 
nation being such only as will not find forgiveness 
''neither in this world nor in the world to come/' 

Whether the principles of faith herein laid down 
conflict with the Anglican creeds or not, depends up- 
on individual views and construction of the creeds. 
As the writer's observation has extended, he has 
found few if any enlightened clergy who believe in a 
resurrection of the flesh, but many who believe in a 
resurrection of a 'spiritual body/ As they do not 
believe that Jesus Christ "sitteth on the right hand 
of the Father" in a literal sense, but they accept it as 
figurative of the high place of honor and authority 
held by the second person of the Trinity. In view 
of which facts the writer craves from all Christians 
such leniency of human judgment as they would like 
to have extended to them, since he is not able to dis- 
tinguish a spiritual body from a spirit. 

The Athanasian Creed 

Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is 
necessary that he hold tlie Catholic Faith. 

Which faith except every one do keep whole and 
undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everylast- 
ingly. 



OF RE A SON AND RE VELA TION 217 

And the Catholic Faith is: that we worship one 
God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity ; neither con- 
founding the persons ; nor dividing the substance. 

For there is one person of the Father, another of 
the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. 

But the Godhead of the father, of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the 
majesty coeternal. 

Such as the Father is, such is the Son ; and such 
is the Holy Ghost. 

The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate; and the 
Holy Ghost uncreate. 

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incompre- 
hensible; and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. 

The Father eternal, the Son eternal ; and the Holy 
Ghost eternal. 

And yet they are not three eternals; but one 
eternal. 

As also there are not three incomprehensibles, not 
three uncreated ; but one uncreated, and one incom- 
prehensible. 

So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son al- 
mighty; and the Holy Ghost almighty. 

And yet there are not three almighties; but one 
almighty. 

So the Father is God, the Son is God ; and the 
Holy Ghost is God. 

And yet there are not three Gods ; but one God. 

So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord ; and 
the Holy Ghost Lord. 



218 CHRISTIANITY IN THE LIGHT 

And yet not three Lords ; but one Lord. 

For like as we are compelled by the Christian 
verity: to acknowledge every person by himself to be 
God or Lord : so are we forbidden by the Catholic Re- 
ligion : to say, there be three Gods, or three Lords. 

The Father is made of none: neither created, nor 
begotten. 

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: 
neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but pro- 
ceeded. 

So there is one Father, not three Fathers: one 
Son, not three sons: one Holy Ghost, not three Holy 
Ghosts. 

And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other : 
none is greater, or less than another: but the whole 
three persons are coeternal together: and coequal. 

So that in all things, as is aforesaid: the Unity in 
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. 

He therefore that will be saved: must thus think 
of the Trinity. 

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salva- 
tion : that he also believe rightly the incarnation of 
Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For the right faith is, that we believe and confess: 
that Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God 
and man: God, of the substance of the Father, be- 
gotten before the world : and man, of the substance of 
his mother, born in the world : perfect God, and per- 
fect man: of a reasonable soul and human flesh con- 
sisting : equal to^^the Father, as touching his manhood. 



OF REASON AND RE VELA TION 219 

Who although He be God and man: yet He is not 
two, but one Christ : one, not by conversion of the 
Godhead into flesh: but by taking of the manhood 
into God : one altogether : not by confusion of sub- 
stance: but by unity of person. 

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man : so 
God and man is one Christ: who suffered for our sal- 
vation, descended into hell, rose again the third day 
from the dead. 

He ascended into heaven. He sitteth on the right 
hand of the father, God almighty ; from whence he 
shall come to judge the quick and the dead, at whose 
coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and 
shall give account of their own works. 

And they that have done good shall go into life 
everlasting, and they that have done evil into ever- 
lasting fire. 

This is the Catholic Faith: which except a man be- 
lieve faithfully, he cannot be saved. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the 
Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now and 
ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 

This elaborate Anglican creed, which seems the very 
embodiment of truth as it relates to the doctrine of 
the Holy Trinity, probably failed of adoption by the 
American Church on account of its damnatory 
clauses; without which, with certain other errors, it 
would be well if it could have been adopted as an im- 
portant part of the faith of the Churcli. 



220 CHRISTIANITY 

Of the thirty-eight articles of religion which were 
so near the point of entire annihilation at the last 
convention, vastly the greater number are worthy of 
perpetuation as expressive of the faith of the Church, 
and should be retained, except as follows : 

The word ^passions' should be omitted in Article I. 

Article 4 should read: ''Christ rose from death and 
ascended to the heavenly state where he remaineth 
till he'^shall return^to judge all men at the last day." 

Article g^should be expunged in the light of our 
Saviour's language found in Matt. 5:28. 

Article 17 should be expunged bodily, unless it be 
found necessary to retain the last paragraph. 



30 1909 



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